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THE PURITY AND DESTINY OF 
MODERN SPIRITUALISM 



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The same entered at Stationers Hall, London, England. 

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THE 

PURITY AND DESTINY 

OF 

MODERN SPIRITUALISM 

Light for the Seeker 
Hope for the Weary Hearted 




FKOM THE PEN OF 



THOMAS BARTLETT HALL 




PUBLISHED BY 

CUPPLES AND SCHOENHOF 

128 Tremont Street, Boston, Massachusetts 
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«-'*> ran of Congrt** * 

Office o f the 

JAV 5- ionn 

Register of Copyrtgfcgg, 



51363 



Copyright, 180.9, 

By Thomas Bartlett Hall. 

A 11 Rights Reserved. 

First impression numbering 550 copies printed November, iS 






SECOND COPY, 






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MANUFACTURED BY CUPPLES & SCHOENHOF, 
BOSTON, U. S. A. 










TO THE 

/IDaster Builfcers 

WITHOUT NAME AND UNSEEN OF MORTAL EYE, 
WHO HAVE BEEN USHERING IN THE DAWN OF 

Gbe THaonderful 2)a£ 

NOW OPENING, BUT EVER AND ONLY IN SERVICE OF 
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, THIS LITTLE BOOK IS 

%ovh\Qlv UnscribeD. 



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DA YBREAK. 



"In vain 
Ye call back the Past again, 

The Past is deaf to your prayer ! 
Out of the shadows of night 
The world rolls into light ; 

It is daybreak everywhere" 

The Bells of San Bias. 



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INTRODUCTION. 



Iffifc 









As these " modern ghosts " will not 
" down " at the bidding of old science, nor 
yield to the anathemas of any established 
ecclesiasticism, but rather persist the more 
in demanding the attention of all classes, 
through their varied forms of manifestation, 
and their claim to be not the least potent, 
if not the principal factors in the great 
movements, social, political and religious, 
which are to-day agitating and revolution- 
izing the whole world of humanity, the 
writer of this little book once more, and in 
continuation of previous endeavors in this 
direction, 1 feels moved to do his part, so 
far as he may be able and permitted, in 
bringing the cause of Modern Spiritualism to 









mg 



1 " Modern Spiritualism by a Bible Spiritualist." — 
Boston: Crosby & Nichols, 1863. 

" Modern Spiritualism, or the Opening Way." — 
Boston: A. Williams & Co., \i 

& 7 * 




W/H 




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flntrofcmction 



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the observation and study of the many sin- 
cere thinkers who are still holding them- 
selves aloof; and perhaps to help those who 
have entered upon the investigation to find 
their way better. 

Surely some quickening power has been 
brought to bear upon human life everywhere 
during the last fifty years, touching and 
kindling into flame the refuse that has been 
gathering out of human experience, and 
bringing all earth life to judgment, while 
plainly ushering in new conditions, higher 
aspirations, broader philanthropies, which 
every day seem more and more imminent. 
In all his dealings with man, God works 
through agencies which alone are within 
man's developing comprehension, while He 
is ever concealed behind the clouds in which 
He is wonderfully wrapped from mortal 
vision. May it not be that this opening of 
the spirit spheres is part, and no small part, 
in the varied instrumentalities for lifting and 
reclaiming man out of the low grade of the 
centuries long past, from which he is now 
plainly emerging ? These agencies from 
the spirit spheres, high and low, as recog- 
nized by Spiritualists, have come in the 
providence of God for far other purpose 

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than the mere amusement of wonder seekers. 
They are brought nearer and more effectu- 
ally to earth life at the closing of an old and 
the opening of a new cycle in the planet's 
development, to quicken, to judge and be 
judged, but always through individual expe- 
riences : for as the kingdom of God is 
within each and all, so are the judgment 
seat and the retribution, whether on this or 
the other side of the veil of time. 

Modern Spiritualism broke in upon human 
experience to find very mixed conditions of 
good and so-called evil ; and dealing with 
these it could not be otherwise than that 
the first fruitage should be equally mixed. 
The time seems to have come for a win- 
nowing of such fruits as have thus far ap- 
peared, and so there has been an apparent 
diminution of interest in the cause, leading 
outside observers "and some within the fold " 
to think that Spiritualism is dying out. The 
fact would rather seem to be that while the 
original centres of attraction and manifesta- 
tion have appeared to be losing their adhe- 
rents, in reality the interest is being diffused 
and extended by those who have seen the 
new light returning to their old associations, 
and sowing the seeds of the new unfolding 

* 9 * 



Jwl!« 







* flntrobuction * 

among them all. The results of such sow- 
ing will in time be seen, if not already appar- 
ent, in the general quickening which has 
been manifested, and of which more may be 
expected. The work will go on as directed 
by the higher powers which have had it in 
charge. Gradually the varied forms of 
manifestation and different grades of medium- 
ship will be brought to more systematized 
relations, which will be marshalled and held 
as a science worthy the attention and study 
of mankind. 

With all the interesting developments 
attained to-day, the science of Modern Spirit- 
ualism is still in its infancy. Its relation to 
distinctly religious interests, through its 
bearing upon questions of conduct as af- 
fected by the conditions and requirements 
reported of the spirit spheres, would seem 
to have invited the special inquiry of those 
who have been called to the offices of reli- 
gion. But the whole body of such laborers 
have been held by their education and habits 
of mind in strange antagonism from the 
time of the first simple sounds announcing 
the spirit approaches, and are still apparently 
more eager to hear that all Spiritualism is a 
fraud, than to learn by patient inquiry what 






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llntrofcuction 



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it does mean, and for what end its advent 
has been providentially permitted. 

Spiritualism is not to be taken as a cul- 
mination of man's uplifting, but is to be 
studied and understood as introducing new 
forces in the development of this planet and 
all life upon it. It does not mean, and 
plainly is not permitted to assume man's 
individual responsibilities : but would rather 
teach him to feel that upon him, as the 
head of the line, lies all the heavier require- 
ment that he should rise, with his increasing 
opportunities and widening range of knowl- 
edge, toward the highest development of 
which he is capable. It is not of itself a 
new dispensation, but one of the opening 
ways in which mankind, on both sides of the 
veil, are bound to move on to the higher 
and better things of the near opening cycle ; 
so that through it shall be fulfilled all the 
hopes and promises so long held out as 
man's rightful inheritance. 

The mighty Energy by which the great 
principles of Love, Justice, and Truth were 
originally implanted in the earth sphere, 
knows no failure in their ultimate carrying 
out, though centuries have come and gone 
in which man has been learning that they 
















flntrofcuction 



cannot be gainsayed or thwarted except to 
his own destruction. Man must and will 
move on until at last he shall yield himself 
joyously to their beneficent direction and 
control. Then and not till then will peace 
on earth and good will prevail. 

Of the nine Articles herein published the 
first three were given to the public in 1863, 
under the title of " Modern Spiritualism by 
a Bible Spiritualist." The second three 
were given in 1883, twenty years later, and 
called, " Modern Spiritualism, or the Open- 
ing Way." The three Articles now added 
at this close of the year 1899, make the 
third series, completing nine in all, and cov- 
ering the writer's experience during the 
many years since his attention was first 
awakened to what seemed to him the most 
momentous topic that could be brought to 
the study and contemplation of man — the 
question which all must sooner or later meet 
— What of the after-life and that bourn 
whence it had been before maintained that 
" no traveller returns " ? Taken as a whole, 
the Articles form a progressive treatment, 
sustaining and in a way illustrating each 
other, and for this reason they are brought 
together. 







■.L'-QHSifA. 



Untrofcmction 



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With no thought of assumption of knowl- 
edge which is not open to every sincere 
seeker, but with the conviction that his ask- 
ing for bread has not been answered with a 
stone, the writer commits this little book 
to the thoughtful consideration of all truth 
seekers ; rejoicing to be of service if it may 
be to any, while ready and glad always to 
be shown a better way. 

THOMAS BARTLETT HALL. 
Boston, November, 1899. 
























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CONTENTS. 



ARTICLE I. 



DAWN OF THE NEW DAY. 



Opening difficulties in the inquiry. — Hume. — Mahan's 
Exposition. — Mediumship. — Individuality. — Bible 
student a helpful Medium. — Good accomplished. — 
Old conditions tested 27 

ARTICLE II. 

HEART AND HEAD. THEIR ANTAGONISM. 

Origin, growth and present state of antagonism between 
intellectual and spiritual culture. — The old church 
and its short comings 59 



ARTICLE III. 

SPIRITUALISM AND MATERIAL INTERESTS. 

Knowledge the foundation of a living Faith. — Spiritual- 
ism breaks up too absorbing devotion to material 
interests, and opens the way to nearer approach and 
indwelling of the very Highest. — The signs want- 
ing which should " follow them that believe." — Our 
civil war and its lessons. — Of what avail this mod- 
ern necromancy ? — A new Dispensation ? — Two 
exemplifications of the work of Modern Spiritualism, 
External and Internal 83 






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An emblem strangely found. ■ — Various good shown. — 
Gifts of the Spirit. — Efficacy of prayer. — Individual 
freedom. — No eternal punishment. — Neglected 
opportunities. — No concealment of wrong doing. 

— Freedom in love to be in service of God. — Su- 
premacy of the Spiritual. — Errors committed. — 
Forces of the new Dispensation. — Methods, mean- 
ing and mission of spirit workers. — Trials of Me- 
diumship. — Appeal to the churches 119 

ARTICLE V. 

SPIRITUALISM A SEARCHING POWER. 

No escape from Judgment. — Spiritual perception not of 
the Intellect. — Guidance of the spirit possible for 
all. — It gives reality to spirit. — The Marriage Rela- 
tion. — Joining of hands. — To spiritualize the nat- 
ural, the need and work of the hour 152 

ARTICLE VI. 

UNFOLDMENT OF THE NEW ERA. 

Method of procedure. — The new era one of spiritual 
opening. — Its quickening causes the turmoil of the 
Times. — Inspiration better understood. — Causes 
retarding progress. — Foremost, ignorance and dis- 
obedience of Law in the marriage relation. — Too 
much selfishness, too little Love. — False shame 

— Errors in food. — Real needs of the physical. — 
Spiritualism a source of consolation to the afflicted. 

— Individuality its first requirement . . . . . . 171 

ARTICLE VII. 

SPIRITUALISM A NEW SCIENCE. 

Demonology, what is it ? — Obstacles to inquiry and re- 
lief. — Inconsistencies of opponents. — Necessity of 

16 



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Contents 



external phenomena. — Materialization described at 
length. — Exclusion of sunlight a necessity, — why. 

— Plainer manifestations to result from better con- 
ditions of inquiry. — Means to a greater end. — Mis- 
taken opposition. — The First Spiritual Temple. — 
Continuing Inspiration from highest sources to be 
cultivated 203 

ARTICLE VIII. 

SPIRITUALISM WAITING. — POSSESSION AND OBSESSION. 

Seeming to be at a standstill. — Motives of inquiry. — 
Difficulty of identification. — Testimony as to con- 
ditions in the spirit realms. — Wisdom of ancient 
spirits. — Progress retarded by antagonistic spirits 
and bands. — The Roman Church. — The freedom 
of Spiritualism opposed to all church rule. — The 
First Spiritual Temple again. — Lack of true seeking 
by inquirers a cause of outside indifference. — Spir- 
itualists scattered through all the churches. — Spirit 
forces thus brought to bear. — Miracles old and new. 

— The Bible illuminated. — Objections considered. 

— Universality of mediumship. — Oliver Wendell 
Holmes. — Testimony of inspirational speakers. — 
Young inquirers to be restrained. — The home circle 
best. — Unbalanced mediumship. — Possession and 
Obsession, what are they ? — Insanity largely disor- 
derly mediumship. — How to be treated. — Obses- 
sion in accordance with Law 237 



ARTICLE IX. 




CLOSING ILLUSTRATION. SOUL CULTURE THE CHIEF END 

OF SPIRITUAL SEEKING. THE MARRIAGE RELATION 

IN CONCLUSION. 

A judgment upon neglected opportunity given in illus- 
tration. — Soul culture. — The marriage relation. — 
Its high calling. — The divine right and duty of 
woman. — Man to be restrained while sharing the 
responsibilities of parentage. — True freedom in 



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Contents 



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love not selfish. — The lower promptings to be sub- 
servient to spiritual control. — A crime against hu- 
manity. — False needs from selfish beginnings. — 
Magnetic interchange appointed. — Intemperate in- 
dulgence in food leads to disobedience of Law. — 
A spirit communication upon marriage. — Free love, 
what is it ? — Apostrophe to truth. — Unveiling of 
Truth essential, where ignorance is not bliss. — An 
inspirational view of what " this orb is yet to be." — 
The writer's early compassion and prompting. — 
True Motherhood the crown of Womanhood . „ 



277 



Appendix 



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ILLUSTRATIONS. 




Portrait of Author at the Age of 60 

with Facsimile of Autograph . . Frontispiece. 

Portrait of Author at the Age of 40, Title-page. 



NOTE. 



The publishers deein it their duty to the author to 
state that the placing of the second of these portraits 
tipon the title-page was done at their instance and not 
at his. 

So placing the7n shows the countenance at a period 
when the earlier portions of the work were written in 
contrast with its present aspect of added years and 
experience. 







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THE PURITY AND DESTINY OF 
MODERN SPIRITUALISM. 



3ftr0t Series* 



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Father, I thank Thee / May no thought of mine 
Swerve from the path of duty, and of love, 

To Thee, and all mankind. 
Help me to know Thee as Thou art, 
Give me a loving true and faith-full heart, 
Oh, let me do my humble part. 

In serving Thee / 









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FIRST SERIES. 
1863. 






ORIGINAL PREFATORY NOTE. 



In willing, but cautious obedience to 
promptings which have thus far led him to 
the beginning, and successful accomplish- 
ment, of many things, often small in them- 
selves, but serving for an experience to 
strengthen his faith, the writer of these 
Articles has adopted this more permanent 
form for their publication ; and he now 
sends them forth to the world, with an 
earnest prayer, that they may accomplish 
something of the good, for which alone, he 
humbly hopes, they have been written. 

It seems proper to add, that the Writer 
has never been a reader of the leading pro- 
ductions of other pens upon the topics here 
treated. He has never read a word in the 
voluminous works of Swedenborg, or of any 
* .23 & 




* Original prefatory IRote * 






of his disciples. Neither has he read any pub- 
lication written by Spiritualists, except a few 
poems, from the pen of the Rev. Thomas L. 
Harris, and his school of Spiritualists. His 
knowledge of Modern Spiritualism is wholly 
from his own careful, earnest study and 
search into its various phases, in a deep 
conviction that there must be a mighty 
truth concealed beneath all the strange phe- 
nomena, which would well repay the labor 
of investigation. He speaks wholly out of 
his own experience. How far he has been 
repaid for his patient research, may perhaps 
be left to the determination of the reader, 
who is desired to peruse the articles care- 
fully, in earnest seeking for the truth; and 
especially to discover, and make known, any 
hidden poison which so many conscientious 
persons are ready to insist lies concealed in 
any, the best possible phase, of Modern 
Spiritualism. 

The chief ends sought to be reached in 
these Articles, are : — to show that there is a 
true spirituality underlying the whole sub- 
ject; — to point out briefly the conditions, 
and explain the difficulties, which have made 
necessary the otherwise strange method of 
its development, out of which all the while 



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* Original lprefator^ 1Rote * 

is working, in ways as yet little compre- 
hended even by those who have been ad- 
mitted into its deepest mysteries, the sure 
fulfilment of things declared in the Scrip- 
tures; — then to show, by brief allusions, 
the great wants of the modern Christian 
Church, which cry aloud for something 
that shall give a new impulse, a new life 
to its stagnant faith; — and last, but not 
least, to declare that Modern Spiritualism 
has come, not to deny, but to confirm, not 
to break down, but to strengthen and estab- 
lish in our minds and hearts, the teachings of 
the Holy Book, the inspired Word of God, 
by a new inpouring of the Holy Spirit, 
amounting, in its fullness, to ■ a new Dis- 
pensation. 

Thus the three Articles here published seem 
to complete the preliminary presentation of 
a subject, which will be exhausted only when 
Time is lost in Eternity. 






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THE PURITY AND DESTINY OF 
MODERN SPIRITUALISM. 



ARTICLE I. 
Dawn of the New Day. 

Opening Difficulties in the Inquiry. — Hume. — 
Mahan's Exposition. — Mediumship. — Individu- 
ality. — Bible Student a helpful Medium. — Good 
accomplished. — Old conditions tested. 

" The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipper 
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." 

It matters not whether we adopt the 
theory that this globe has, from its infancy 
to its present state, progressed out of chaos 
by separate acts of creation, under the fiat of 
the Almighty ; or whether we believe that 
the process of growth has been one of devel- 
opment out of the life principles so im- 
pressed upon the new world at its birth, that 
>£ 27 k 



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£be ffmrity anfc Besting 



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time could not go on without their unfold- 
ing, gradually, according to a law. The 
great fact is admitted by all, independently 
of these theories of growth, that there have 
been what are conveniently called creative 
epochs in this world's history, which are 
distinctly marked as divisions of time, though 
their precise beginning and ending have 
eluded the research of the best of our 
science. There was a time, we know, when 
this earth, now so beautifully clothed with 
vegetation, was bare of all growing things. 
So there must have been, and was, a time 
when this vegetation began to creep over 
the earth's surface. There was a time when 
there was no animal life sustained by breath- 
ing the earth's atmosphere, and there was a 
time when animal life had its beginning. 
There was a time, too, when man was not, 
and a time when he began to people the 
earth. These epochs have come gradually, 
not only in reference to the whole process of 
the earth's development, but, judging from 
all we can learn by scientific investigation, 
and from all analogy, each epoch has, in 
itself, been the subject of a gradual intro- 
duction and growth, and a gradual decay 
and disappearance as it has given way to its 
* 28 * 













* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

succeeding epoch ; or rather seems to have 
been the foundation on which the epoch 
succeeding has been built up. Each new 
epoch has sprung into being, not complete 
and full grown, but from germinal begin- 
nings that have found their life and susten- 
ance in the ashes of the past ; each successive 
epoch furnishing, in its ashes, material for a 
higher growth in the scale of being. 

These epochs have proceeded in regular 
series, and the last so-called act of creation 
was the coming of man. Of man's begin- 
ning we know nothing. Far back in the 
East we discern glimmerings of light upon 
the questions when and how the human 
race began its career upon earth ; but they 
are merest glimmerings, and convey to us 
nothing more than the beautifully simple 
record of the Bible, that God created man 
in his own image, and he called their name 
Adam. Through what vicissitudes of life, 
what changes and varieties of condition, 
what growth and refinement, physical and 
spiritual, this race of beings has been brought 
to its present development, cannot be stated ; 
in any brief compendium. That this world 
is, however, progressing as heretofore, to 
some higher condition, and that the beings 

* 2 9 * 









* ftbe ffmrit£ an£> Besting * 

who are ultimately to inhabit it will rank 
higher in the scale than its present occupants, 
is inevitably inferred from all analogy, and 
is received by all Christians at least, if not 
by all civilized people, as an event which 
awaits only the sure fulfilment of prophecy. 

No wise man will dare to say that, even 
in his lifetime, there may not be develop- 
ments promising things yet to be, which 
were never dreamed of in his philosophy. 
We know not when to look for the signs of 
the coming great change, though we perhaps 
do know through the Christian dispensation, 
what the signs shall be, when the great 
change approaches. That it will be gradual, 
we argue from analogy, — that it will come 
silently, without proclamation, " like a thief 
in the night," we believe from revelation. 

It is but a few years since the American 
public were surprised and amused with the 
tidings of what was first known as, the " Ro- 
chester Knockings." By most persons the 
story was entirely disbelieved, and deemed 
unworthy of a second thought, much less a 
sober consideration. From that little begin- 
ning, what a strange progress and develop- 
ment the thing called Spiritualism, be it true 
or false, has attained ! Subjected to ridicule 
* 30 * 









* of fH>ofcern Spiritualism * 

the most sarcastic that could be invented ; 
to examinations and tests of as various kinds 
as there are variety of conceits in the human 
brain ; explained, over and over again, by as 
many different theories as learned minds to 
examine, — theories frequently militating 
against each other, so that the defender of 
the cause can often find his best arguments 
in the mouths of those who think to con- 
demn ; the most educated classes of the 
community, with old Harvard at their head, 
arrayed in opposition ; the Church issuing 
its anathemas against it with a bitterness that, 
had it been sustained by public opinion, 
would have brought the early votaries of 
Spiritualism to a fiery stake ; little under- 
stood, often entirely misunderstood, used 
and abused in every conceiveable way, still 
the glaring fact remains, that no cause, moral 
or intellectual, civil or religious, physical or 
spiritual, ever made such progress in secur- 
ing the attention, and the more or less en- 
lightened faith, of men, as this same cause 
of Spiritualism. Its active opponents seem 
to have pretty much given up their fruitless 
attempts to stop it, and have sunk back 
from their labors, seeking consolation in the 
thought, that, if it contained no truth, it 

* 3i * 









* Gbe purity anfc Destinp * 

could not prevail ; they have left it, where 
indeed they found it, in God's hands, to 
manage according to his own wisdom and 
high behest. The result is, as far as our 
observation goes, that the community is di- 
vided upon this subject into two large classes ; 
namely, those who believe in Spiritualism, in 
the broad acceptation of the term, and those 
who do not believe it, but think there must, 
or may be, something in it. The number 
of those who utterly reject all its facts and 
phenomena as trickery, is too small to be 
named as a class. 

Such a subject demands something more 
than an occasional notice from the pen of 
journalists, in the ordinary course of com- 
ment upon matters that may interest the 
public. It is, therefore, with no wish to 
write a passing criticism, or merely to offer 
a readable article, that we have undertaken 
to present our views upon Spiritualism ; but 
from an earnest desire to help others to 
know something of a mighty cause, through 
the highways and byways of which we have 
been laboring in the search after truth. 
Like all pioneers, we have had our expe- 
rience, which ought to be of value to those 
who may desire to know the truth like our- 

* 32 * 






* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

selves ; and if we can point out any of the 
dangers, the rocks on which some poor 
mortal's bark might otherwise be wrecked, 
we shall feel that we have done some good, 
whilst we do humbly trust that, as we seek 
God's blessing on our work, there may be 
other more positive fruits of our labor. 
Perhaps what we have to write might be 
called, the " Confessions of a Medium ; " 
not confessions of our own sins, though 
God knows we have fallen into errors 
enough, but confessions of the wonder- 
workings of an all-wise Father, who rules 
these things, as all others, — confessions of a 
deep experience, that has awakened our 
spirit to new life, and leads it to pray daily 
that it may be so privileged of God as to do 
its humble part in bringing his kingdom 
upon the earth, in seeing to it that his will 
be done here, even as it is done in heaven. 
We write what we do know, not what we 
have heard others tell of. We would be 
humble as a little child, seeking the truth, 
with God's blessing on our prayers. 

It is about ten years, a little more (1855), 
since our acquaintance with Spiritualism be- 
gan through Daniel Hume, 1 of whose medium 

1 Later known as D. D. Home. 




* £be purity anfc Beating * 

qualities most persons have heard some- 
thing. The subject was new then, and 
people would not believe their senses. Upon 
his departure for Europe, he was playfully 
called " Hum-bug." But those who win 
may laugh ; his powers, whatever they were, 
opened the way for him to the inner cham- 
bers of the man who, of all men of that day 
and generation, has ranked, and still ranks, 
the shrewdest, sharpest, the veriest juggler, 
whom nobody would deceive, and whom 
nobody could find out. This man, then 
reigning Emperor of the French, with wit 
and capacity to detect fraud equalled by 
few, and with position and power to punish 
it when detected, without appeal, did not, 
could not, find the key to Mr. Hume's 
wonder-workings, except in the explanation 
which the phenomena have ever claimed for 
themselves. Before his departure, we had 
many opportunities of meeting Mr. Hume 
in private circles and family gatherings, 
which offered every chance for testing the 
reality of the phenomena, so that we became 
fully convinced that they were no ocular 
delusion, no mistake of our senses, and per- 
haps might be, what they purported to be, 
the works of spirit power. It is enough 



w^®zm& 





* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

here to say of them, that they combined a 
variety of physical manifestations, mind- 
readings, and what purported to be spirit 
communications, which is not often found in 
any one medium. He left us wondering ; 
and we looked round for other proofs, other 
mediums, other experience. 

Having advanced so far as to believe in 
the actuality of the phenomena, doubt not, 
reader, we soon found ourselves in a very 
sea of perplexities, and that we were often 
tempted to give up our inquiry in despair. 
But remembering that we were pioneers, we 
determined to brave all hazards, to meet all 
difficulties, for the sake of truth. Our first 
great trouble was, that we had ever attached 
to the word " Spiritualism" a sense of some- 
thing high and holy ; whilst we found 
neither in the mediums, nor in the pheno- 
mena, any special characteristic that marked 
the high, or the holy ; for they partook 
of all degrees, from the highest of Heav- 
en's blessed truths to the lowest of Hell's 
horrors. It seemed to us then that the 
wrong term had been used, and that it 
should have been Spiritism, or Demonism, 
in the original sense of demon. And this 
was, after all, the most natural ; for if the 

* 35 * 






* Gbe purity anfc Destiny * 

good spirits could come to bless us, why- 
could not the bad ones come to plague us ; 
or if the low could come, why not the high ? 
God works by general laws and special prov- 
idence, in Spiritualism, as in all other things. 
Satisfied so far, still we found ourselves 
continually perplexed, sometimes beyond 
endurance, by the absurdities, the contra- 
dictions, the follies, nay, the wickedness, 
that broke out upon the community under 
the guise of Spiritism. With what gratitude 
did we receive the book published in 1855, 
by Rev. A. Mahan, President of Cleveland 
University, entitled, " Modern Mysteries 
Explained and Exposed." Weary and worn 
with our labors, ready to sink in the turmoil 
of doubts that surrounded us, we welcomed 
that explanation, incomplete though we 
knew it to be, as sufficient to furnish a re- 
treat wherein we might at least have some 
rest. He did not pretend to deny the facts 
of the manifestations, which we knew could 
not be denied, and so gained our willing 
concession to his theory of "odilic force." 
It was sheer fatigue that enabled us to find 
any rest in this poor shelter ; but it sufficed 
to give us a moment's respite, only to renew 
the inquiry with increased earnestness, de- 

* 36 * 




* of Hfeofcern Spiritualism * 

termined, with our own good-will, and in 
God's own time, to find the truth which we 
felt assured must be waiting to rejoice those 
who would strive after it. " Knock and it 
shall be opened unto you," " Seek and ye 
shall find," were blessed words of encourage- 
ment, which seemed to bring us a new 
strength. Seeking the truth only for the 
truth's sake, we trusted that God would 
guide us, and guard us, through all our 
deviations from the true path. We prayed 
to him, that, if there were truth in these 
things, we too might know, in our own ex- 
perience, the mysteries of mediumship. We 
asked that we might know in our own con- 
sciousness, through external or internal sense, 
the actual presence of the spirit world about 
us. At last the answer began to come. We 
became sensible of slight touches upon the 
head, as though a hand were gently passed 
over it. We had not expected this manifes- 
tation, and at first doubted it ; but frequent 
recurrence of the sensation, often under cir- 
cumstances that caused us much surprise, 
proved that it was not the work of our 
imagination, but a real touch from some 
body or thing, some power or spirit, that 
thus informed us of its presence, and was 

* 37 * 



* Zbe fl>urit£ an& Destiny * 

perhaps communicating some mysterious in- 
fluence. 

It is unnecessary to describe the stages of 
development through which we have passed. 
Suffice it to say, that, though yet far short 
of the goal, if indeed there be any limit, we 
have been carried, sometimes quite imper- 
fectly, into enough phases of mediumship to 
give us an understanding of all these things 
from our own experience. Each day as we 
have advanced, the importance of prayer 
has been urged upon us, and we have felt 
its power wonderfully in guiding our search 
for truth, and saving us from the errors com- 
mitted by others who have not known the 
wonder working of a true appeal to the Great 
Father of all spirits. Especially have we 
been saved from too rapid development, 
which has so often led men to commit follies 
that have brought ridicule, and sometimes 
disgrace, on the very cause they had most at 
heart. In this, as in all other subjects that 
may interest and occupy the human mind, 
too much, or too sudden knowledge, topples 
the reason, and opens the way for folly to 
enter in. We have often thanked God in 
gratitude for the reply made through a 
medium to our earnest prayer for develop- 

<* 3 8 * 



* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

ment : " You shall have the truth as fast as 
you can bear it ; for if it should come as fast 
as it could be given, it would craze your 
brain." 

We have spoken of passing through cer- 
tain stages of development imperfectly. By 
this we learned that, whilst such forms ofme- 
diumship have their use, particularly for the 
purpose of introducing Spiritualism to the 
world's notice, they are not the highest 
forms. We believe that the highest form 
of mediumship is that where the individual- 
ity of the medium is the most developed 
and the most active, so that the medium's 
self, being a spirit in the body, may draw 
directly from the spiritual fountains of God's 
eternal truth and power, as mankind has 
generally believed the spirits of the departed 
would be privileged to do, according to their 
spiritual deserving and capacity. In other 
words, the highest mediumship is what has 
been heretofore vaguely known as inspiration^ 
and sometimes called genius. We mean 
inspiration in its broadest sense, in every 
kind of knowledge to which the human 
mind has been permitted to give expression. 
Religious inspiration, in its various phases ; 
the inspiration of the fine arts, music, poetry, 

* 39 * 




SRS^viftH&FK 



* £be purity anfc Destiny * 

painting, sculpture ; the inspiration of the 
mechanic arts in all the phases of invention ; 
the inspiration of the philosopher ; the in- 
spiration of what is often called plain com- 
mon-sense. They all flow from the same 
source, — God's great fountains of knowledge. 
As Solomon said, there is nothing new under 
the sun. All knowledge exists in spirit 
life before man slowly elaborates it for 
external expression on this earth plane, and 
the degrees of so-called genius are marked 
by the varying capacity to receive and 
express it. This idea is involved in the 
word impression, so often used by men in 
their every-day business affairs. They have 
" impressions " so and so ; sometimes against 
the convictions of their reason. Where do 
these impressions come from ? What are 
they ? They are the result of influences 
from spirit life that surround every human 
being, that " cloud of witnesses," of which 
we read in Scripture ; and they will be of a 
higher or lower character, exactly according 
to the spiritual condition of each individual. 
God works through agents more or less 
directly. The spirits in the spirit world are 
the messengers which bear tidings of good, 
and of so-called evil, to every one according 
4 o 







^5«jjgr»^®iai 



* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

to his desire and capacity to receive. As 
this desire and capacity to receive depends, 
under God's blessing, upon each individual 
will, so each one of us has to work out his 
own salvation in very truth. But not with- 
out aid : the power of prayer is mighty ; the 
Father of spirits will send us such influences 
as we truly ask for. Ask, and ye shall 
receive, — even the desired presence of the 
blessed spirit of Jesus. 

This principle of individuality is one of 
the most important teachings of Spiritualism, 
though, we admit, nothing in itself new, and 
offers, at the same time, the simple explana- 
tion of one of the serious difficulties in the 
way of the public acceptation and acknowl- 
edgment of the reality of spirit presence and 
power. It is the first and last objection of 
the educated classes, that Spiritualism has 
given to the world so little, if anything, new 
in science, or indeed in any of the ordinary 
matters that have heretofore occupied the 
educated mind. It is true that very little 
has been given to common mundane science, 
in distinct propositions, through ordinary 
mediumistic communications, and it is for 
the reason, now beginning to be understood, 
that when God permits the spirit world to 



ly&lllSll 




* Gbe purity anfc Destiny * 

draw close to the earth life, he does not 
intend that the spirits out of the form shall 
assume all the responsibilities, do all the 
thinking, perform all the labors, bear all the 
burdens, of those in the form. Such a 
course, if permitted, would have directly 
taken away man's accountability ; his indi- 
viduality would be gone ; and so experience 
has taught very many inquirers that they 
cannot long act with safety in matters of 
worldly interest under the sole direction of 
mediumistic communications. The cause 
of Spiritualism has seemed to suffer, as un- 
believers have had opportunity to point the 
finger of ridicule at the sad and absurd errors 
committed by Spiritualists, who have been 
working out this result of their experience, 
earning this wisdom for their own, and the 
world's benefit. It is only when the me- 
dium's own spirit is developed, so as to 
receive impressions direct, that he can with 
safety act them out through his own enlight- 
ened mediumistic consciousness ; but even 
then the promptings must ever be brought 
to the bar of conscience, God within us ; 
whilst the reason must sit in external judg- 
ment to determine pure questions of external 
prudence and policy. We must ever, as St. 

* 42 * 



!iB& 




* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

Paul says, " try the spirits," that we " may 
prove them." 

At the risk of some repetition, we will en- 
deavor to explain more clearly what may per- 
haps be called the philosophy of mediumship. 
When the man of so-called genius finds new 
ideas crowding into his brain, it cannot be 
said that he makes them. All the result of 
the scholar's study is to bring the mind into 
condition to receive the thoughts that are 
ever waiting for admission, when the mind is 
ready and able to accept and comprehend 
them. It is no mere play of fancy, when the 
poet begins his labor with an invocation to 
the muses. It is an act of preparation, to 
lift the poet's spirit into a condition to re- 
ceive the poesy that is ready to flow in upon 
him. The most hard-headed philosopher 
must be in what he would call, the right 
spirit, or he cannot think (receive thoughts) 
effectively. A genius, then, and there are as 
many kinds of genius as subjects to occupy 
the human mind, is the medium through 
whom the ideas floating in the spirit world, 
existing in the spirit life, are given external 
expression, so as to be more or less compre- 
hended by the minds of others. The man 

C • ■ • 111 

or genius gives expression to the thoughts 







* Gbe purity ant) Destiny * 

which are given to him, and commits them 
to paper. They are printed in a book. This 
book in turn becomes the medium for the 
transmission of the ideas to the ordinary read- 
ing minds, which, on their part, must be de- 
veloped to a condition able to receive the 
ideas, or the words read are hieroglyphics 
without meaning. The man of genius gets 
the ideas by inspiration from the world of 
spirit ; the ordinary man of talent must wade 
through the printed pages, and receive the 
same ideas by slow induction, word by word. 
Precisely as the man of genius receives, and 
gives expression to the ideas which are given 
to him, so Spiritualism teaches us, truth is 
handed down by gradation from the central 
fount of eternal knowledge and truth, through 
the various conditions of spirits in the spirit 
world, who progress and rise from one to an- 
other of those " many mansions," each nearer 
to the source of direct inspiration. 

Now spirit mediums, as commonly recog- 
nized, are supposed, by outside observers, to 
be the mere instruments used, or purporting 
to be used wholly by other spirits for pur- 
poses of manifestation and communication. 
The fact is that there are all degrees of me- 
diumship, from this entire absence of the 

44 * 



.iOm 






* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

medium's self, to the complete inspiration, 
where the medium's consciousness and indi- 
viduality are in full action. They are me- 
diums in this latter case as much as in the 
former ; the difference being that, in the lat- 
ter case, the medium's own spirit uses its own 
organism to express the inspiration which is 
given to it more or less directly, whilst in the 
former case, another spirit controls the me- 
dium's body, and is itself the communicator 
of thoughts, to which it has been receptive, 
and now seeks to express. We believe that 
those mediums will give to the world the 
most new things, and the highest truths, 
whose individuality is never lost, and is in 
the highest state of development. Of course ■ 
those forms of mediumship which only afford 
tests of spirit presence, resulting in the iden- 
tification of friends who have passed on, are 
desirable, if not indispensable, to satisfy the 
preliminary inquiries of those who begin by 
being either curious, or anxious, to know 
whether the world of spirits is really so near 
this earth as it professes to be. But these 
tests are given quite independently of any 
consideration of the medium's own develop- 
ment. Indeed, the most remarkable tests 
sometimes have come through those of low 

* 45 * 




* Gbe purity ant) Besting * 

condition, physically and spiritually. These 
tests are given in a great variety of forms. 
A very striking form is in the appearance of 
the names of departed ones, in letters of red 
on the arm ; a phenomenon which has as- 
tounded many hundreds of persons, as shown 
in two mediums recently in Boston. This 
class of mediums has been, and still is, essen- 
tial to the introduction of Spiritualism to 
man's notice and comprehension, — it began 
with table tipping and rapping, the first rude 
alphabet of communication, — it will disap- 
pear when it has done its work. Already 
many mediums who have been used only for 
tests are losing their powers, or falling off 
into neglect. 

Let it not be supposed, however, that the 
tendency of Spiritualism is solely to intellec- 
tual development and manifestation. In ac- 
cordance with the spirit of this age, it has 
found its introduction to the world's notice, 
in a great degree, through the intellectual fac- 
ulties and purely intellectual observations. 
It could not have been introduced in any 
other way to a people like the American 
nation, which had become so eager in the 
pursuit of material prosperity through intel- 
lectual development, that the nation's heart 
* 46 * 



-^w?3! 



* of flfeofcern Spiritualism * 

has needed its present fearful awakening 
under the hands of an all-wise Providence, 
which, in our belief, is but the beginning of 
a mighty struggle for dominion between the 
powers of good and the powers of evil, that 
is yet to sweep over the face of the whole 
globe. This consideration leads us to the 
higher, or what in common acceptation would 
be deemed, the more spiritual development 
of Spiritualism, which is now gradually un- 
folding to the wonder and delight of all its 
truest advocates. 

Whilst it is admitted that an equal devel- 
opment of heart and head are necessary to 
make the perfect man, we believe that the 
heart must be first cultivated, or the head 
cannot receive true wisdom. Without an 
understanding of the heart, the knowledge of 
the head is full of errors that lead the spirit 
to its ruin. This is no new proposition ; 
the philosophy of it is simple. True heart 
development brings that peace of mind which 
fits it, the mind, for the highest intellectual 
conceptions, makes it receptive to the high- 
est truths. Yet the nations who boast of their 
Christian civilization have ignored it, and 
set up intellectual idols that have received 
their souls' devotion for six days in every 

* 47 * 










* Zbe fl>urtt£ anfc Beating * 

. , 

week, and been hardly forgotten in the midst 
of their would-be sacred observance of the 
seventh. Wonderful has been the intellec- 
tual and material progress of the* nations, and 
particularly of this people, during the past 
century ; but is it not true that spiritual 
culture and development have been retarded, 
if not retrograded, in the same degree ? 
Witness the practical results ; see, for exam- 
ple, the utter selfishness of the trading, 
commercial classes. With few exceptions, 
every man of them is striving, with his whole 
soul, to find out, not how he can help his 
neighbor, but how he can get ahead of him. 
Alas, for such Christian followers ! We fear 
the Founder of their religion would hardly 
recognize his disciples among them. But 
this is no place for a homily upon the sins 
of the nations. We should shrink from 
such a task under any conditions ; to cata- 
logue them only would be a fearful under- 
taking, for their name is legion. 

The feeling that true Spiritualism should 
have something, if not .everything, to do 
with the understanding of the heart ; and the 
fact that it has thus far, to the view of exter- 
nal observers, seemed to have so little to do 
with it, has been one great cause of the 
►j» 48 k 



- 




* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

severest opposition it has experienced. For 
reasons which we shall hereafter endeavor to 
state, it appears to us to have been necessary, 
in the present condition of the world's devel- 
opment, that the near approach and commu- 
nion of the spirit-world should be brought 
to the knowledge of mankind in the way it 
has been. Believing, as the Christian world 
professes to believe, in the second coming of 
Jesus, how many are there who would be 
able to recognize him now in our streets in 
the humble garb of the Nazarene ? The 
difficulties are immense in the introduction 
of any really new phase in the world's 
development, arising out of the conditions 
of head and heart, into which such new 
development must gradually work its wav. 
We are able now to see the wisdom that 
directed events, when the infant Jesus was 
laid in a manger, he " the Prince of Peace," 
" the Saviour of the world." As time goes 
on, the wisdom will be recognized which has 
directed the course of Spiritualism to its 
present unfolding, itself but the germ of 
what is yet to be. 

We have spoken of our own continuous 
and unsatisfactory search after true spiritual 
mediumship, in the first years of our inquiry. 

* 49 * 



* Zhe purity anfc Deetin^ * 

We did not feel that we had arrived at the 
beginning of the truth, until we made the 
acquaintance of a medium who had been 
developed as such after an anxious study of 
the Bible. This was a young person, born 
of true New England parentage, in one of 
the best of New England homes, of large, 
healthful physique, with fine intellectual 
powers, a broad head and large understand- 
ing, who had been drawn into the cause 
against external convictions, as well as the 
wishes of family and friends ; but who could 
find happiness in no other direction, and 
alone, before God, trusting the inmost dic- 
tates of the still small voice, after many 
struggles, much wrestling with the spirit, had 
determined to go forward with the work, 
whatever it might be, so long as it did not 
militate with the highest sense of right and 
duty. 

This person, called a healing and devel- 
oping medium, was not under the control of 
those who purported to be our relatives, or 
particular friends in the spirit world, but 
was wholly influenced by a few choice spirits, 
who announced, through their unconscious 
trance possession, that their medium had 
been selected as an instrument of great good 

* 5° * 






* of fIDobern Spiritualism * 

to the world. What that good was, we did 
not at first understand ; we had yet to learn 
it. The communications were addressed 
wholly to our physical and spiritual condi- 
tion, and the work of regeneration that was 
to be done amongst the people. They were 
not given in tedious homilies, but came in 
quiet, natural suggestions, warnings, and 
advice, accompanied at times with a manipu- 
lation of the head, which had a strange sooth- 
ing, yet invigorating power, easily and early 
recognized. It was indeed a healing power, 
and imparted a pure vitality, which by a 
mysterious process gradually reached the 
spirit within, and we felt that the old heathen 
maxim of " sound mind in a sound body," 
had a spiritual meaning beyond its ordinary 
acceptation. By slow degrees we began to 
perceive the refined influence that seemed 
to rain down upon our heads as we sat in 
silent waiting. Not knowing what to expect, 
the light of Heaven gradually illumined our 
heart, and we were ready to acknowledge 
that we could perceive a spiritual influx, as 
we sat for development, which seemed to 
give us, or itself to be, the true riches of 
which the Scriptures teach, for it brought 
with it, in very truth, that peace which 

* 5 1 * 




* £be purity ant) Besting * 

passeth all understanding. This is no idle 
fancy of our own, no mere play of the ima- 
gination ; others have known it as well as we ; 
it is difficult to describe or explain, but when 
realized by experience, brings with it a sense 
of reality such as nothing else seems to give. 
It seems almost the only reality of life. 

At intervals the spirits, through this me- 
dium, would reason with us, as Paul, of right- 
eousness ; but whenever we asked for tests, 
such as are given through other mediums, 
they refused, for the reason that it would be 
a waste of powers which were dedicated to 
higher uses, as we have above endeavored to 
explain. We did not, we could not, accept 
the full meaning of this at once. Tempted 
in our progress to pursue comparatively idle 
inquiries, our prayers, and the kind words of 
the medium, saved us from dallying by the 
way-side. Purely intellectual investigation 
seemed to be for a time forbidden. Our 
business was with the heart alone. To pu- 
rify that, to become as a little child, to sit at 
the feet of Jesus, and receive from his hands 
something of the Christ-spirit with which he 
was filled, this was our work, this the present 
object of life. It was (and is) a realization 
of the patriarch's dream, in which the angels, 





Ws^w^m^xSf^W^^smmi', . . .i&j&m 



* 



of flfeofcern Spiritualism * 



God's messengers, are eternally ascending 
and descending, bearing up to the throne the 
petitions of His creatures, and bringing back 
the responses of His mighty love, — re- 
sponses which teach us to throw away self- 
ishness utterly ; to live and labor for others ; 
to dispense widely unto all ; to give freely, 
as we have freely received, these treasures of 
God's love ; to so explain these things, and 
illustrate them in our lives, that they shall 
show forth His goodness and glory. 

These lessons could not be learned till we 
had given up our conceit of knowledge ob- 
tained through purely intellectual culture; and 
now, humbled as a child before God, but a 
man amongst men, we feel ready to begin a 
good work, rejoicing that we find the yoke so 
easy, the burden so light. 

If we are asked, how can these things be 
known to all, we say to all, high and low, rich 
and poor, learned and unlettered, gather your- 
selves in small circles, two or three together, 
cheerfully, but soberly, reverently, in the 
name of Jesus, pray for the light you need, 
and it shall be given to you. Let as nearly 
as possible the same persons meet at each 
successive gathering ; let the surroundings be 
fit for such communion. If the circle be in 



tj&tsH' 



* £be purity anfc Destiny * 






• 







a family, — and where better can it be ? — let 
the place in the house be selected which is 
freest from contaminating influences. It 
would be well for the world if there could be 
a " holy of holies " in every dwelling-house, 
where the best influences could be poured 
down upon those in waiting. Let not the 
father of the family, the man of business, ob- 
ject that it will interfere with his daily avoca- 
tions ; it will rather give him new strength for 
all his duties. It is not for the Sabbath only, 
but every day in the week ; whilst it teaches 
still the true value and use of the great day 
of rest. But chief of all, let not the man of 
education, of learning, fancy that his time for 
study cannot be interrupted for these things. 
Let him rather forget his pride of intellect, 
and an humble member of the circle, let him 
ask for that true light which will illumine his 
soul, and send its quickening rays into the 
most hidden corners of his deepest researches. 
It was in the highways that Jesus found his 
first believers and disciples ; — must it be so 
still ? 

But be assured, that to follow these things 
with trifling curiosity is to expose one's self to 
the penalties of sacrilege. By laws to which 
we have referred, you will get just what you 

* 54 * 







* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 



seek after. Beware lest you bring to the in- 
quiry too careless a heart, or a head too vain 
of its understanding. Do not, however, 
think that you can turn away and neglect 
these things for one motive or another with 
impunity. Your likes or dislikes cannot 
change the orderings of Providence. If the 
near approach of the spirit world be a fact, 
then it remains a fact whether you like it or 
not. On the other hand, if it be true that 
these influences, for good or for evil, are 
around about, and so near you, it behooves 
you to understand their powers and mode of 
action, lest in your wilful ignorance you suf- 
fer approaches to which you would not know- 
ingly be subject. In familiar phrase, if you 
wish to know what company you keep, ever 
influencing your feelings, your thoughts, 
your actions, sometimes much more than the 
friends and companions seen by your body's 
eye, look closely into your heart, for as that 
is, so shall your unseen companions be. 
You cannot escape it. Understand your- 
self rightly, make yourself what you know 
you ought to be, and you will learn to thank 
God for the sweet angel influences that guide 
and guard you through every hour of your 
life 

inc. 

* 55 * 



:■.-: I 




* Gbe purity anfc> Destiny * 

Let not Spiritualism be rejected by out- 
side observers, because they cannot see any 
good yet accomplished by it. Misunder- 
stood as it has been, much silent good has 
been done that is not proclaimed aloud to the 
world. By it many doubting minds have been 
established in a faith in the future life of the 
spirit ; whilst many more have been relieved 
of the most depressing fears of the everlast- 
ing retribution, the relentless eternity of 
punishment, by learning that progress is the 
law of God's universe in the spirit world, as 
in the earth life ; and the blessed consolation 
of a divine hope has given them new courage 
to try to attain a higher, better, holier con- 
dition, according to their capacity, and not 
according to the dogmas of their theology. 
Still more good has been wrought out of 
Spiritualism, through the very errors of its 
early converts. Good has come out of the 
wrongs committed under the name of Spirit- 
ualism, by showing the sad inefficiency of the 
Christian Church of this day. We say it 
not in unkindness, but in sadness; we say it 
not of any particular denomination or sect : 
it is true of all, as out of all have come those 
unhappy victims of their own weakness, who 
have, in the name of Spiritualism, thrown 

* 56 * 





of flDobern Spiritualism 



* 






off the cloak of religious observances under 
which they had concealed the rottenness of 
their hearts from the world's knowledge, if 
not from their own, and, availing of the as- 
sumed authority of false teachers and proph- 
ets, have in their actions confessed their 
little faith. It is a fearful proof of the want 
of true Christian grace, of vitality in their 
faith, that so many professors of the reli- 
gion taught by Jesus, have been so easily 
led astray. Let them not make recantations, 
and lay the blame on Spiritualism, for it is 
but their own sins which have found them 
out; they may rather thank God that any- 
thing has come to show them their spiritual 
condition. 

Angels are about us, the spirit world has, 
in this nineteenth century, been brought 
near to the earth life to mingle its influences 
for good, or for evil. Not, as it would seem, 
by an entirely new law ; for these things have 
been before ; but to an extent, and in a man- 
ner, which indicate, and are proclaimed as 
showing, a new dispensation in the provi- 
dence of God. Exactly what this new dis- 
pensation will unfold is not for man to know 
yet, but that it is ushering in one of those great 
epochs in the progressive history of the earth 

* 57 * 





- - 



* £be purity anfc Destiny * 



%f&m 





and its creatures, to which we have in the be- 
ginning referred, we do believe. Far be it from 
us to presume to reach too far into the plans 
of the Almighty ; but it is our solemn con- 
viction, that these things do announce that 
second coming of which the Scriptures teach. 
The condition of the earth and its people, 
the signs of the times, indicate this more than 
ever before ; whilst the near presence of the 
spirit world brings with it holy influences 
which must elevate and spiritualize all of 
earth's creatures who will receive them, and, 
as good is ever stronger than evil, will, sooner 
or later, drive off.into outer darkness all who 
wilfully reject and oppose them out of the 
ignorance, or the wickedness, of their hearts. 
If God' s holy angels can and do so come, why 
may not the blessed spirit of Jesus come too ? 
Has he not come already ? Is he not in the 
midst of us even now, and we know him not ? 

May, 1862. 






* 



5>S 



*r 



if 



&;i 



^M£r.J&.X&^.- '.-'-J,-. 



* of flDobern Spiritualism 




* 







ARTICLE II. 

Heart and Head — Their Antagonism. 

Origin, growth and present state of antagonism be- 
tween intellectual and spiritual culture. — The old 
church and its short comings. 

" Behold, I make all things new." 

Having endeavored to show that there is 
a true spirituality underlying the external ex- 
pression of Modern Spiritualism, we would 
now try to remove the chief obstacle which 
has prevented many conscientious persons 
from finding out this inner life, by explain- 
ing the origin, growth, and present state of 
the antagonism between intellectual, and pure 
spiritual culture. This branch of the inquiry 
may not be interesting to all readers, but we 
deem it indispensable that it should be thor- 
oughly examined, and fully comprehended, 
before the more educated part of the com- 
munity, as a whole, can be in condition to 

* 59 * 



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Gbe purity anfc Besting 



* 









receive the truth. We would reiterate, that 
we write wholly from a desire, under God's 
blessing, to give to others the light which 
has been given to us ; understanding that 
what we have to say cannot of itself persuade, 
but only make others receptive to the influ- 
ences which God is ready to pour in upon all 
who will open themselves to the "flowing in 
of his spirit of love and truth." 

Nothing is more marked in the history of 
opinion, whether relating to the commonest 
interests of every-day life, or to the most 
abstruse problems of scientific or metaphysi- 
cal inquiry, than the disposition of mankind 
to incline to extremes ; on the one side in 
their tenacity of things already established, 
and on the other side in their correction of 
acknowledged errors. Discovering their 
mistakes slowly, men are apt to adopt views 
directly opposite to the old ones, and for 
that reason full of new error. Whether this 
arises from a laudable desire to find the truth, 
and hold it firmly when discovered, or whe- 
ther it has its origin in man's weak conceit, 
leading him to assume the right and power 
to fix the limits of knowledge, and declare 
out of his own mouth the law, to the concep- 
tion of which he has slowly attained, are 
% 60 >£ 








* of flfeofcern Spiritualism * 








questions which we believe might be carefully 
considered with much profit to self-sufficient 
humanity. The fact is admitted by all ; and 
the leaders in these opposite positions are 
deemed the extremists of their time, and 
properly so considered, whether they are on 
the side of progress or conservatism. Few, 
however, are able, though recognizing the 
fact, to attain a position nearer to the truth ; 
whilst most are content to flatter themselves 
by pointing out the extreme views of others, 
and pronouncing judgment on them even to 
foolishness. 

Of all extremists none are so unhappily 
placed, at least for their own advantage, as 
those who are on the side of conservatism ; 
their case is almost hopeless. The extre- 
mists of reform are ever moving on to new 
thoughts and new life ; making mistakes 
enough in their self-anointed conceit, but 
still getting lessons in their experience which 
their conceit would not let them learn by the 
gentler processes prepared by God for the 
teaching of those his children who are willing 
to humble themselves first before him, in 
prayer for such light as he will vouchsafe to 
give them in his own time, and in his own 
way. Alas for the extremists of conservatism! 

R 6l ' ifi 




WL 



* £be purity anfc Destiny * 

They never try to rise; they wish for nothing 
new, no matter how much for the better. 
They remain, as they suppose, firmly fixed 
on everlasting truth; till suddenly they dis- 
cover that the foundation on which they 
rested has rotted away, or become too weak 
for the superstructure; and from being the 
most comfortably secure, they find them- 
selves the most uncomfortably insecure of all 
the world. Inevitably they either float off 
without sails, without rudder, without com- 
pass, into a turbulent sea of doubt and dis- 
traction; or, as the old ties give way, they 
swing violently to the other and directly op- 
posite extreme, yielding themselves to a 
mixed rule made up largely of temper and 
selfish chagrin, though its true character may 
be concealed from themselves by their de- 
clared and acknowledged desire to do as 
nearly right as they can. Their motive may 
seem to be good ; but they were extremists 
in their conservatism, and they are become 
extremists in their new light. We have re- 
markable instances of this in the political re- 
lations of the American people at the present 
time, when the most ultra conservatists give 
expressions to violent sentiments which fairly 
leave behind many of those whom they form- 
% 62 k 





* of fH>ofcern Spiritualism * 

erly decried as dangerous, if not unprincipled 
reformers. The same thing may be seen in 
all the relations of life, if we will observe 
them carefully, even in the most insignifi- 
cant matters. 

It is not to be expected that men should 
be otherwise affected, and experience shows 
that they are not, in matters regarding their 
religious and spiritual interests. A few cen- 
turies ago, the civilized world was wholly 
subjugated to the Church, which had usurped 
to itself all authority over the minds and 
hearts of men, so that both in mind and 
heart man's individuality was lost. In know- 
ledge of temporal things he became a child; 
and whenever the spirit world and its influ- 
ences came near him, he fell at once into 
blind superstition, which culminated, at dif- 
ferent intervals among the nations, in the 
various phases and terrors of witchcraft. 

This assumption of the Church, arrogat- 
ing to itself all knowledge, all power, in 
things temporal, and in things spiritual, 
though under the name of spiritual rule 
only, led to the Reformation of the seven- 
teenth century. Breaking from the thraldom 
in which he had been held, man rushed into 
the arena which he found world-wide, — nay, 

* 6 3 * 






* Gbe fpmrits anfc Destiny * 

limited only by the limits of his own ca- 
pacity. Not all at once did he obtain free- 
dom from church rule. Even now it is far 
from complete in things purely spiritual; for 
the dogmatic theology of Protestantism has 
at times held, and does in some directions 
now, well-nigh hold, in spiritual things, the 
very supremacy which led to the outbreak 
of the seventeenth century. But the old im- 
pulse, the return pendulum-swing of opinion 
started by the Reformation, continues ; and, 
believing that the old error was, in yielding 
a blind obedience to the rule of those who 
pretended to act wholly under spiritual guid- 
ance, and thus made distrustful of all things 
purely spiritual and cognizable first, if not 
wholly, by the heart, man still is, as he has 
been, for the last two or three centuries, 
going to the other extreme, and letting in- 
tellectual forces take the lead and control of 
his development. The result is a disposition 
to doubt everything not the subject of abso- 
lute independent intellectual conception, and 
this has led, in different nations and at dif- 
ferent periods, to conditions fatal to his high- 
est spiritual development. In France, it 
reached a climax in the fearful reign of Rea- 
son, and the bloody scenes of her great Rev- 
»i» 64 >j. 








* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

olution. Throughout all Europe it has re- 
sulted often in a miserably unspiritual, if not 
wholly Godless materialism. In our own 
country the tendency has been to a material- 
ism, not Godless, but wholly unspiritual. 
The intellectual conception of the God prin- 
ciple has been retained, and he has been per- 
mitted to reign abstractly through such laws 
as science has been able to investigate ; but 
he has been a God of the head only, not of 
the heart. The tendency has been to recog- 
nize his power in the world's creation, and 
perhaps in the daily orderings of the world's 
life, but to ignore and deny the possibility 
of a spiritual relation between man and his 
Creator, other than man's ever-varying con- 
ceptions of his attributes. 

In struggling to escape from the thraldom 
of the old church, man has succeeded so far 
as to be no longer subject in temporal things, 
and to a great extent in spiritual things, to 
its dominion. We see comparatively little 
of the old superstitious relation between the 
priest and the people. But' in denying 
the authority of the Church, and exercising 
his own thought upon spiritual things, man 
has been carried to the opposite extreme of 
independence, and come to rely wholly on 

* 6 5 * 




* Gbe purity anfc> Stestinp * 



■:-Y '^'' : ~ - 




his own strength, forgetting that there was a 
God behind the Church, whose power, whose 
love, the Church had arrogated to itself, and 
therefore lost its influence. Nay, the indi- 
vidual man has fallen into the very error 
which has led to the destruction of the 
Church's power, and constituted himself as 
the Church, with all knowledge, all power. 
As surely as the Church has lost its high 
position and power, so surely must individual 
man be humbled before the true, the only 
Church, which is of Christ. "It may or 
may not be a matter of regret," said an 
observant preacher, recently, " that church 
organizations seem to be crumbling ; the 
great fact is left, that, where two or three are 
gathered together in the true Christ spirit, 
there will always be a true Church." He 
might have added, there only has the true 
Church ever been. 

Still, progress is the law ; and from this 
extreme intellectual development has come 
the power to resist the tendency to supersti- 
tion in spiritual things which was almost 
unavoidable during man's thraldom to the 
Church, — a power without which he would 
not have been able to bear the recent advent 
of spiritual phenomena. The want of this 
►j< 66 <% 



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* of flfcofcern Spiritualism * 

power is even now shown in many individ- 
uals, who from mere fear are unable to 
approach the subject of Spiritualism, as pre- 
sented in the more striking physical manifes- 
tations, though few are bold and truthful 
enough to themselves and their fellows to 
acknowledge their weakness. The old 
church superstition is not all worked out of 
them, though they little suspected it till these 
recent strange things forced them to show 
the fact in their actions, if not in words. A 
few of these timid ones try to persuade them- 
selves that their fear is a proper fear of 
trenching upon sacred ground, an unwilling- 
ness to pry into the things upon which God 
has set the seal of mystery. But these either 
deceive themselves as to the fact, or their 
feeling is but another form of the old super- 
stition which taught that the priest alone 
could know the ways of God. Let them 
remember that Christ died for all men, and 
to all men is it given to penetrate the very 
depths of spiritual things, if they will become 
worthy to be so blessed. To him that ask- 
eth, if it be in the right spirit, it shall be 
given. To him that knocketh in the name 
of Jesus, it shall be opened. 

Believing, then, that out of this intellec- 
* 67 * 







&gg* 




* Gbe purity ant) Destiny * 

tual freedom has come to most men of this 
day and generation the ability to bear the 
approach of spirit phenomena, so far as to 
examine them without falling into the old 
superstition of witchcraft, we would endeavor 
to show more particularly how this has been 
brought about ; to explain the working of 
the elements of head and heart, mind and 
spirit, which have heretofore held such antag- 
onistic relations, and thus to reach, if we can, 
the true philosophy of this branch of the 
subject. We ask the candid reader's careful 
attention. 

Thought and spirit are real things. They 
have substance, refined, as compared with 
material things, even up to sublimity ; still 
they are real, substantial existences. It is 
difficult for us to come to a conception of 
this idea, this fact; and perhaps it is suffi- 
cient for the present to recognize them only 
as forces, of substance too ethereal and subli- 
mated to be recognizable by the senses of 
the body, yet living forces. Now it cannot 
be denied that, since the Reformation of the 
seventeenth century, it has been the ever- 
increasing tendency of Protestantism to give 
unlimited sway and supremacy to intellect, 
and to reject all phenomena, all manifesta- 

*• . 68 g, 




















* 



of flDofcern Spiritualiem 



tions, which could not be discerned through 
the ordinary avenues of intellectual concep- 
tion, and recognized through the ordinary 
channels of external sense. Thus, by the 
deliberate exercise of his will, the forces of 
man's intellect have been held in direct and 
successful opposition to the forces of his in- 
ner or spiritual life. The idea of spiritual 
discernment, as understood in the days of 
the Apostles, has been utterly repudiated, as 
having no possible place in our wise-think- 
ing heads, and any suggestion of such a pos- 
sibility in these days utterly rejected. Here 
is a plain, direct antagonism between subjects 
of externa] intellectual conception, and things 
of the spirit, to be spiritually discerned. 
From this antagonism has arisen the diffi- 
culty, especially of educated people, in re- 
ceiving spirit manifestations, whether of the 
purer and more refined, or of the grosser 
kinds ; there being as many degrees of re- 
finement among spirits, as mansions to re- 
ceive them in the spirit world. The more 
men have been educated in the schools of the 
day, the greater has been their difficulty as 
regards these spiritual things. Too great con- 
fidence in their intellectual acquirements, or, 
to speak in plain terms, though not in un- 

* 6 9 * 









* Zbe purity anfc> EJeetiwp * 

kindness, their self-reliant intellectual conceit, 
has repelled, or made impossible, all direct 
approaches from the spirit world. Herein 
we find the key to what has heretofore been 
considered the mystery of faith. There are 
three conditions to which the idea of faith 
has relation. First, entire disbelief; second, 
indifference as to belief, or mere willingness 
not to reject; and, third, active belief. In 
these three conditions are the three degrees : 
first, direct antagonism of the intellectual 
forces against the spiritual forces ; second, a 
mere suspension of hostilities, with more or 
less of a guard to watch the enemy ; and, 
third, the open receptiveness, the glad wel- 
come to all the gifts and graces of the spirit, 
with all their accompanying blessings as they 
are worked out into external, or more ma- 
terial expression, on the earth plane. 

There is no new law in these conditions. 
It prevailed equally in those early days 
when the Holy Spirit was manifested on 
earth in the form of Jesus. It was amongst 
the ignorant fishermen that he, the Naza- 
rene, the carpenter's son, found his first dis- 
ciples ; simple-minded men, who had nothing 
to unlearn, and little, if any, intellectual an- 
tagonism to overcome. The educated men of 
*b 70 qf 



* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 







his day would not receive him. To the fisher- 
men it was enough for him to say, " Follow 
me," — whilst it required a miraculous inter- 
vention to reach the heart of Paul. So, too, 
in the more external workings and expression 
of the spirit power, what might be called 
the more physical manifestations of spirit, 
wrought out through Jesus, the same law 
prevailed ; and we are told in the Scripture 
record, that the want of faith, or rather 
their active disbelief, the intellectual antag- 
onism, prevented a certain district of the 
Jewish people from beholding the wonder- 
workings of the miraculous power. Ovk iSv- 

varo ckci ovftefiiav Svva/uv 7rot^sai, ei /xr], etc., "And 

he could there do no mighty work, save," 
etc. ; was not able to do is the literal transla- 
tion, as it is the only meaning of the origi- 
nal Greek, though commentators find great 
difficulty in accepting it, because of the 
standpoint from which they take their view. 1 
By this same law of antagonism between 
mind and spirit power, have many persons 
been utterly prevented from witnessing even 
the grossest forms of spirit manifestation in 






. - 



1 Gospel according to Mark, chap. vi. verses 5 and 6 ; also 
Matthew, chap, xiii., verse 58. See note to this last verse in 
Barnes's Notes on the Gospels. 



* 




7i 






* 





..;' .. :. . 














* Gbe purity arto Besting * 

these latter days. Learned men, relying on the 
education of their heads, have again and again 
endeavored to hear even the simple rappings 
with more or less conscious desire and will, 
not to find out what the strange thing was, 
but to prove that it was not what it purpor- 
ted to be ; and they have gone away reas- 
sured in their wisdom of this earth, which in 
such an inquiry is indeed very " foolishness." 
In obedience to this same law, there was a 
gradual disappearance, and latterly, up to the 
commencement of the rappings, there has 
been a remarkable cessation of all the mani- 
festations, which in the days of church rule 
resulted in superstition and witchcraft. Ap- 
pearing at intervals in the gradual decline of 
the Church's power, the fact of this final 
entire cessation has always been to our minds, 
until recently, quite inexplicable. Here and 
there, to be sure, we had heard of what were 
called haunted houses, and we had read of 
the Wesley rappings ; but our education had 
taught us to consider all such things as man- 
ifestations of anything but spirit power, and 
most probably as the result of deluded ima- 
ginations. Still, Mansfield on the English 
bench, and Sewall on this side, had soberly 
sat in judgment, and had condemned on the 

i>& 7 2 





* 



of fIDofcern Spiritualism 



* 



■■ 




evidence ; and the alternative has been either 
to deny the facts and stultify Mansfield and 
Sewall, as indeed we believe Sewall, later in 
life, did for himself; or to admit the facts in 
some way, and wonder why such things had 
so entirely disappeared in modern times. 
We now understand that this cessation of 
spirit manifestations has been owing to the 
power of mental forces, held by the will in 
antagonism with the spirit forces. 

Let it be supposed, then, for the sake of 
the argument, if the position cannot other- 
wise be admitted by our readers, that, in the 
fullness of time, the period had come when 
the spirit world was moved through its depths 
to draw near to the earth life. How could 
it, under the condition of things which we 
have endeavored to explain, how could it 
signify its approach and near presence? It 
has often been objected to modern spirit 
phenomena, that their method of expression 
is so mundane, so unspiritual, though claim- 
ing to be of spirit origin. The objectors 
have demanded that the spirits should come 
with gentler approaches, and in more ethereal 
guise. But it must be remembered that 
spiritual things, in what may be termed their 
more natural expression, can only be spirit- 




m 






* Gbe fl>urtt£ anb Besting * 

ually discerned ; and how, we would ask, 
could these spiritual things be discerned by 
a race who utterly repudiated the possibility 
of such a manifestation, and deemed such an 
idea foolishness ? Nay, how could the spir- 
itual world even come near enough to be 
spiritually discerned by a people who were 
all the time repelling it, by the antagonism 
of which we have spoken ? A little reflec- 
tion shows that it was only through material 
signs, to be recognized by the senses of the 
material body, that the spirit world could 
begin to effect any approach. It was because 
the world in the flesh was deaf to the still 
small voice, that resort to the gross, or mate- 
rial manifestations, by rappings, was neces- 
sary. Even these manifestations owed part 
of their influence to, if they were not 
necessarily preceded by, the phenomena of 
mesmerism or animal magnetism, to the 
laws of which recourse has so often been had 
for an explanation of the spirit phenomena, 
which otherwise would have compelled many 
minds to admit that they were what they 
purported to be. Thus gradually, through 
the three degrees above named as associated 
with the idea of faith, has the antagonism 
been removed, and thus is it still being re- 

74 * 





. ■..sm^S^mw^l^Smh, ^&i* 



* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

moved, and the opposition so disarmed, that 
the finer, and purely spiritual manifestations 
begin to be received by those who have 
clambered over the stumbling-blocks in their 
way, and to the spiritually-developed the 
things of the spirit begin to be opened, and 
by them spiritually discerned. But, oh ! 
through what struggles, what sufferings has 
this knowledge of spiritual things been 
attained. The utter repudiation of the 
possibility of spirit expression and commu- 
nion has led to public and private persecu- 
tion worthy of other days. Men have 
charged the folly, if not the crime, of 
superstition upon all the early votaries of 
modern Spiritualism ; and public opinion, 
instead of the burning stake, has been, and 
still is, the fiery ordeal to which the conscien- 
tious believer finds himself bound in bitter 
agony, whilst nearest and dearest friends are 
willing to add fuel to the fire, and blow the 
flame, till the victim yields his faith, or 
through spiritual power is raised trium- 
phantly, like the martyrs of old, above all 
consciousness of suffering. 

By degrees the supremacy of pure intel- 
lectual knowledge and insight is giving way ; 
and, having become willing to throw aside 

* 75 * 







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* Zbc purity anb Beetin^ * 



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their conceit of intellect, men are beginning 
to sit down humbly before true spiritual 
culture, and receive the inspirations from 
spirit life that have long been waiting to 
bless them, but they would not accept. 
Their intellectual development has liberated 
men from those idle fears and low concep- 
tions which formerly led to witchcraft and 
its fearful persecutions; whilst the same con- 
dition of development has led, at the outset 
of the investigation of modern Spiritualism, 
to purely intellectual conceptions of the sub- 
ject, through inquiries originating in the head, 
much oftener than in the heart. The idle 
curiosity, flattering itself often under the 
guise of scientific authority, which has from 
the beginning put the questions suggested 
by its vain conceit, has been met and 
answered in a way well calculated to put it 
to the blush. The spirit of the inquiry has 
been promptly met by its brother spirit in 
the spirit life ; and all by the force of laws 
which the wise in the wisdom of this earth 
have been slow to comprehend, assuming 
that they were already well enough in- 
formed on all matters of spirit life, power, 
and manifestation, because they had reached 
to a comprehension of some of the laws 
* 76 * 



^■mS&&im^i 




* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

by which its Creator regulates his material 
creation. 

It may be claimed by different branches 
of the Christian church, that they do not 
deny the proper supremacy of pure heart 
culture when brought into comparison 
with the wisdom of the head, though they 
perhaps have not distinctly recognized the 
antagonism which we have shown to exist. 
In the Catholic Church, particularly, has the 
position been maintained, and practically 
carried out, that the danger in giving free 
scope to intellectual investigation in spiritual 
things certainly, and perhaps to some ex- 
tent in temporal things, was so great, that 
the popular mind could not bear exposure 
to it, and hence the argument in support of 
blind church rule, and mysterious rites in 
their religious services, conducted in an un- 
known tongue by the initiated priest. So, 
too, with the dogmas of the Protestant 
churches, insisted upon as articles of faith, 
and involving points of doctrine which had 
been worked out by the leaders of the 
Church, who alone could be lifted up to a 
true contemplation of their inner sense ; a 
position of strange inconsistency for Prot- 
estantism, as recognized by all freethinkers, 

* 77 * 

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--- 









* £be purity anfc Besting * 

and justly rebuked by the parent church. 
But, passing by this question of inconsis- 
tency, and admitting the merit in this fear of 
intellectual supremacy, let us look a little at 
the character of the substitute offered in 
compensation for the loss of the intellectual 
investigation which has not been permitted. 
It is in this direction, as it seems to us, that 
the Church has deceived itself, and out of 
this self-deception that it is so powerless to 
put an end to the fearful sway of selfishness, 
which now rules with nations and individuals. 
So much stress has been laid upon the im- 
portance of articles of faith, that the masses 
have been content with holding to these, if 
indeed they have not been directly taught 
that these alone were sufficient for their sal- 
vation. Catholicism and dogmatic Protest- 
antism have pointed out a danger in too 
independent action of the intellect upon spiri- 
tual things, but their position in this regard 
has been substantially a negative one only, 
so long as they have furnished no better 
substitute for the right of free inquiry than 
simple obedience to their own authority, 
whether expressed in blind church rule, or 
theological dogmas. Thus has it happened 
that all the while, in spite of Catholic church 
* 78 * 




m 



* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

rule and Protestant dogmatic authority, the 
intellectual forces of men, starved into inde- 
pendent self-reliant action, have been at- 
taining the ascendancy each day more and 
more, and the antagonism of which we have 
spoken become established. 

If the Church had not assumed to possess 
all knowledge and all powerin spiritual things, 
and taken upon itself the responsibility of 
true enlightenment, thus relieving men of 
their individual responsibility to know and 
understand their true relation to God and 
their fellow-men ; if it had not offered itself 
as the Mediator between them and their 
Creator, but had rather denied itself alway, 
and offered Christ as the only Mediator ; if 
by its own example it had taught men to 
humble themselves, each one, before God, 
in prayer for such light and such blessings 
as he might see were needed, and vouchsafe 
to send them ; then indeed would a good 
work have been done, and the Church of 
this day been entitled to a tribute of praise 
and thanks from its equally humble followers. 
But pride, conceit, and self-reliance have been 
its attributes, and its children could hardly 
be expected to be superior to their spiritual 
guide. The happy middle course of humble, 

* 79 * 






• Gbe purity anfc Etestini? * 

prayerful, individual development was hard 
to find out under such conditions ; and few, 
very few, have found and followed it. 

We do not understand, and would not for 
a moment suggest, that the intellectual facul- 
ties of our nature are to be lost, or even kept 
in abeyance, but made subordinate to pure 
heart or spiritual culture, so that only true 
knowledge can, and shall, be offered to man's 
comprehension. Then all things of the spirit 
shall be accepted by, and made reasonable to, 
the mental faculties, which will sit humbly 
waiting for God's movement, and not trusting 
in themselves to work out their own knowl- 
edge in their own way, which leadeth to de- 
struction. The equal development of heart 
and head, the beautiful harmonious result of 
a true relation between the spiritual and men- 
tal forces, in which alone can be found the 
perfect man, is yet to come ; and the grave 
question now proposed to the world is, 
whether the time for the establishment of 
that harmonious relation is not at hand ! It 
can come in no other way than through a 
pure spiritual Christianity, such as the 
world has not seen yet, with the Christ spirit, 
and not human intellect, under any guise of 
creed or doctrine, recognized as the only 
^ 80 ►$< 



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* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

test of a true church. It is then, and not 
till then, that the prayer so often on the lips 
of men is to be answered; then, when God's 
kingdom shall come, and his will be done 
on earth, even as it is done in heaven. 

If it be true — and Spiritualists know it to 
be true — that messages from angel forerun- 
ners have announced the coming of that 
kingdom as close at hand, when Christ shall 
return to earth, and reign in the name of the 
Father, is it well, nay, is it safe, to pass the 
messengers, or the message, by unheeded ? 
If it should be that they are messengers of 
truth, are you ready, are you prepared, to 
bear the quickening power of the Spirit? Al- 
ready is it at the nation's door. Already 
have the elements of war and fratricidal strife 
in this people been worked out into fearful 
expression. Be not deceived because this 
appears to have been done by natural causes. 
Wait not till the influence has penetrated to 
the very hearthstones of your homes, for 
there too shall its quickening power yet be 
felt, and the elements of disease and death be 
driven out into expression more fearful even 
than on the battle-field. Purify your homes, 
purify your hearts, purify your bodies, purify 
your lives ! Wait not for the purification 

►£ 81 >j< 







* Gbe purity anfc Destiny * 

which shall be a consuming fire Even now 
does the mighty voice sound through the air, 
as heard of old by the Prophet of Revela- 
tions, and audible to him that hath an ear to 
hear are those momentous words, " Behold, 

I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW ! " 

July, 1862. 



* 82 i£ 



* of flDobern Spiritualism * 



ARTICLE III. 

Spiritualism and Material Interests. 

Knowledge the foundation of a living Faith. — Spirit- 
ualism breaks up too absorbing devotion to ma- 
terial interests, and opens the way to nearer ap- 
proach and indwelling of the very Highest. — 
The signs wanting which should "follow them that 
believe." — Our civil war and its lessons. — Of 
what avail this modern necromancy. — A new Dis- 
pensation ? — Two exemplifications of the work of 
Modern Spiritualism, External and Internal. 

" And he shewed me a pure river of water of life." 

Again we find ourselves filled to over- 
flowing with thoughts restlessly demanding 
expression. Again we are moved by a deep 
heart-felt desire to communicate to others, 
would it could be to all the world, some idea 
of the rich blessing, the joy unspeakable, 
which we have received from a knowledge of 
things spiritual, as opened to us through 
Modern Spiritualism. We say knowledge of 

* 83 # 






f}£)Fs3k\ 










* £be ffmrity anfc Beating * 

things spiritual : for it is no conventional 
creed ; no philosophical, or mystical, shaping 
of our human conceit ; no ingenuity of our 
poor brains. It is knowledge in very truth: 
a certainty; an experience; a living reality; 
without which now, life would become to us 
almost insupportable, the world would seem 
a barren waste deprived of the indispensable 
sunlight of God's love. The soul recog- 
nizes and rejoices over this blessing, the rich- 
est in the Father's bestowal, at all times, and 
in all events. It is drawn in with every 
breath ; it courses through every vein ; it 
moves, it leads, it guides, it guards, in every 
emotion, every thought, every action of our 
waking, or sleeping existence. It is the 
presence of the living God ! The willing 
spirit listens to its heart promptings, and 
child like yields every wish of its own to the 
gentle ruling of a Father's love. Under its 
influence, human pride is let down from all 
assumption and conceit. The soul recog- 
nizes in its inner sense, and its outer expe- 
rience, that the divine guidance is ever direct- 
ing and helping in matters seemingly the 
most trivial, as well as in those otherwise 
supposed to be most momentous, and so goes 
on in its daily occupation, rejoicing equally in 
>j» 84 ►£ 



* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

large and small duties, for in all and each, it 
humbly feels that it is doing, or at least try- 
ing to do, only the Father's will. 

As we look into the world of life around 
us, we feel, we know, that there too, as well 
as in ourselves, the power of God, is alive 
and at work ; and no living creature, no cre- 
ated thing, is too insignificant to be a sharer 
of our sympathy as coming from the hand of 
the same maker with ourselves, and sustained 
by the same love. Thus no difference of ex- 
ternal position, or surroundings ; no appar- 
ent preference or exaltation of one creature 
above another, of one human being over his 
fellows astonishes or deludes us into any- 
thing like creature worship, or brings any the 
least desire to sacrifice to worldly pomp or 
circumstance. All creatures and all things 
are in their proper sphere and place, moving 
on in accordance with a mighty law of devel- 
opment, which no man can fully comprehend. 
Happy those who can recognize the Father's 
guiding and sustaining hand through it all. 
Thrice happy those who can fall gently in 
with the current, and acquiescing in the wis- 
dom of all things, without struggle or resist- 
ance, humbly seek the more to know and feel 
the Father's ever present protection and 
* 85 * 






Sii^i, -:--.' ....:-. . .-■ . ., r -r;^^,fcv ; 








* 



* Gbe purity ant) Destiny * 

care, the more the course of events, near and 
'far, large and small, becomes complicated 
and inexplicable to their feeble comprehen- 
sion. Oh, that this faith, this living faith 
could be a reality of experience to all. May- 
God's blessing go with our humble effort to 
communicate and explain to others some- 
thing of this life divine, so that the desire in 
their hearts may unfold into a faith that shall 
open them to the influences of the Holy 
Spirit. Thou knowest, Father, that this 
wish is expressed in no vain conceit of our 
own wealth ; that it is no foolish boast of the 
blessings with which Thou hast crowned 
our life. As we are true unto the truth as 
it is in Christ, be Thou unto us, and unto 
this labor ! 

" That the desire in their hearts may un- 
fold into a faith that shall open them to the 
influences of the Holy Spirit " ! Let no 
one take offence at this ; but rather let every 
one inquire soberly what it signifies. What 
does it mean, that in this day of Christian 
development, with so many men and women 
to be found throughout this religiously en- 
lightened people,who have experienced the 
movings of the spirit within, and become, in 
the church sense, reconciled unto God, and 










* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

with so many more who have felt their inner 
natures touched by the divine presence, and 
the secret chambers of their hearts illumined 
by a divine light, not their own ; what does 
this call mean, which says to such, and we 
gladly admit there are many such, that their 
faith needs yet to be unfolded, and their 
hearts to be " opened to the influences of the 
Holy Spirit " ? Certainly it is not intended 
to be a captious, fault-finding complaint, or 
rebuke. It is rather an invitation to still 
further development, to a finer growth, a 
higher life of the spirit, a more complete 
realization, in every day practical life, of all 
the blessings which are involved in, and 
spring from, the Christian faith ; a more 
abundant blossoming and fruition in those 
gifts and graces of the spirit, which in the 
days of the early disciples of Jesus were dis- 
tinctly recognized as the natural outgrowth, 
as they were the visible evidences of a true 
Christian life. The highest received Chris- 
tianity of the churches of to-day, stops far 
short in its practical outworking of the Chris- 
tianity taught, and if we may believe the 
record, actually realized amongst the early 
converts, the first disciples of the humble 
Nazarene. And this without any reason, 
* 8 7 3 



TSSI....\ 




* £be purity anfc Besting 

or explanation, offered or received ; and when 
referred to by some honest inquirer for a 
cause, is admitted, with the cold, insufficient 
comment, that those times are not these 
times. In other words, the men and women 
of those days, when the world was almost 
two thousand years younger in its develop- 
ment than now, are admitted to have been 
capable of spiritual attainments, which we of 
this day cannot aspire to ! What has the 
world been about all this time, that such 
should be the comparative condition of those 
who are so apt, in all other things, to boast 
of their modern civilization ? Can it be be- 
lieved, that the good seed sown by the Mas- 
ter's hand has been all this time germinating, 
the divine influence by him implanted upon 
our earth sphere has been so long, and so 
widely, rooting, without some progress in the 
capacity of man's nature to receive, and ex- 
press, a higher type of Christian develop- 
ment, than it was possible for the men of the 
early centuries to attain ; instead of our being 
unable even to equal them ! The truth is, 
not only that the good seed has been ger- 
minating, but that the natural man has been 
going through a process of decay. There 
has been a breaking down of the walls of 
»ji 88 (ji 









* of flfeofcern Spiritualism * 

the flesh ; human nature has been changing ; 
becoming less and less gross in its animal de- 
velopment, and consequently more and more 
susceptible to spirit influences ; and that the 
manifestations of spirit presence and power 
in these days, are uncontrovertible evidences 
of the fact. But we may be content, for the 
present, to rise to those spiritual attainments 
with which, the record tells us, the early 
Christian disciples were blessed. When 
those are reached, it will be time enough to 
aim at higher growth, and loftier elevations, 
of the spirit's life. 

The first step towards progress is the 
admission of present wants, the acknowl- 
edgment of present short comings, the 
recognition of something better and higher, 
which we have not yet reached. Every one 
admits that there is no condition so fatal to 
Christian development, as a satisfaction and 
contentment with present attainments. In 
order therefore that the class of professing 
Christians, to whom we have above referred, 
may be reminded how far short they are of 
the living faith which Jesus offered to his 
contemporaries, and by the wonderfully pre- 
served record, as well as by the influences 
now pouring in upon the world, offers unto 
H 89 k 






* Gbe purity anfc Destiny * 

us, we would ask such to put a few searching 
questions to themselves, which shall reach to 
the heart, without disguise of any sort. 
When these questions have been seriously 
considered, they will be more willing to 
admit the necessity, and better able to receive 
the blessings, of a new dispensation, whose 
first work is to revivify the ancient faith 
which bears such stinted fruit in their lives. 
Beginning with the more visible signs of 
faith ; where do we find a professor of the 
Christian life in these days who, through his 
religious development, can show, we do not 
say boast of, for they are in no sense a sub- 
ject for pride, any of those signs, which in 
the words of Jesus, as recorded by St. Mark, 
"shall follow them that believe" — "In my 
name," said the Master, " shall they cast out 
devils ; they shall speak with new tongues ; 
they shall take up serpents ; and if they 
drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt 
them ; they shall lay hands on the sick, and 
they shall recover " ! Who of them, we ask, 
can show a faith responsive to those other 
words recorded by St. John, "He that be- 
lieveth on me, the works that I do, shall he 
do also, and greater works than these shall 
he do " ! Who, again we ask, can show any 

* 9° * 











of flfcofcern Spiritualism * 

of those gifts of the spirit enumerated by St. 
Paul as the natural result and evidence of a 
knowledge of Christ, when accompanied with 
the gift of charity ? How is it that none of 
these persons can show even the signs and 
gifts which have, in these latter days, made 
their appearance amongst so many that are 
not recognized as the truest followers of 
Christ, if indeed they are not often wholly 
without that spirit of charity, or love, the 
want of which, says St. Paul so truly, renders 
these gifts valueless. It may almost be said, 
that instead of the members of the modern 
Christian church showing in themselves any 
of the gifts of the spirit, they are apt to con- 
demn unheard any one who seems to possess 
these gifts, as on that very account, to be 
excluded from the Christian fold ! 

But passing by these external evidences 
recognized by Christ himself as signs of 
those who believe in him, what are the inner 
proofs of progress in true Christian develop- 
ment to be found in the professing members 
of the modern church ? For example, how 
many of these have comprehended the mean- 
ing, and practical application, of the Saviour's 
reference to the lily of the field, as a beauti- 
ful exemplar for man to copy in his daily 

* 91 * 




* Zhc purity anb Besting * 








life ? How many are there who begin to 
take no thought for the morrow, what they 
shall eat, or what they shall drink, or where- 
withal they shall be clothed? How many 
who really believe, and carry into practice 
their faith, that if they will seek the Kingdom 
of Heaven first, all those things " shall be 
added unto them." To earn a livelihood, 
to gain an independence, is proclaimed and 
approved as the great aim, the first object of 
every man's ambition ; not to find out what 
service his Creator would have him do, what 
field is open for him to accomplish the high- 
est, greatest good ; not what the unselfish 
promptings of the spirit within would have 
him attain to, but what avenue is most open 
by which he can reach what his friends, and 
all the world, call success. Occasionally, to 
be sure, a young man begins his career with 
vague notions of usefulness ; but they are 
either soon crushed out of him by contact 
with the stern realities of life, which come to 
try him, and prevail against his better feel- 
ings, for the reason that he has not that 
living faith which can sense and follow the 
leadings of the Spirit, and patiently leave 
results to the wisdom of God ; or he sinks 
in despair at the apparent fruitlessness of his 
>£ 92 ►£< 








* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

efforts, and dies early of a broken heart. 
The pulpit does indeed insist upon the abso- 
lute importance of every man's loving God 
with his whole heart, being just in all his 
dealings, and in short carrying his religion 
into his business ; but does it sufficiently 
teach that a true development in Christ is 
itself a business, the first business, it may 
almost be said, the only business that 
peremptorily demands his attention ; for the 
Kingdom of Heaven first attained, the fruits 
of all other business shall, in natural course, 
be added unto, and crown his life with many 
joys. Men and women have yet to feel that 
in the performance of all the daily avocations 
of life, in every position and capacity, they 
are doing God's business, not their own ! 
When they can feel this, the work of life, in 
a]] its details, will go on with a harmony that 
shall chord with the very music of the 
spheres ; for then will they have sought the 
Kingdom of Heaven first, and will do their 
daily labor, not for the sake of the bread 
that shall be earned by it, but for the joy in 
doing the Father's will ; trusting that their 
daily bread will be given to them in due 
season in answer to their daily prayer, as 
naturally, and as surely, as the elements 

* 93 * 






* Zbe purity anb Besting * 

bring to the lily of the field the food it needs 
for its daily growth, and the materials where- 
with to weave the beautiful fabric of its 
matchless raiment. 

A much severer test of the development 
of those who openly and formally profess 
their faith in Christ, is to be found in their 
conduct at this period of national judgment 1 
and condemnation, when if ever there seems 
to be a call for all the cardinal Christian vir- 
tues, Faith, Hope, and Charity. We feel 
that the leading spirit of the great Southern 
Rebellion is a wicked one. We believe 
equally, that many, if not the most of the 
combatants on both sides, certainly of those 
who have gone forth to crush it with death- 
bearing weapons of war, have been, and are, 
actuated by their highest sense of self-sacri- 
ficing duty, and shall receive their reward 
accordingly. But do these considerations 
alter the fact that war is not, and cannot by 
any sophistry be made, consistent with the 
teachings of the gentle Jesus, whom they in 
other things profess to follow. Undoubtedly 
every man does right who acts up to his high- 
est sense of duty ; but is that sense of duty 
necessarily according to the Christ-spirit of 

1 1863. 
%? 94 *fc 




* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 









love, because it is the man's highest sense ? 
The highest sense of duty with the ancient 
Jew was in exact retaliation, " an eye for an 
eye, a tooth for a tooth." But Christ has 
taught, nay, in love commanded, " That ye 
resist not evil : but whosoever shall smite 
thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the 
other also." " Love your enemies, bless 
them that curse you, do good to them that 
hate you, and pray for them which despite- 
fully use you and persecute you " are the 
words of the Master, spoken without reser- 
vation of any kind. Some persons, a little 
more tender than others, feeling the incon- 
sistency, have talked about laying aside their 
Christianity for the war, as they, with their 
short external vision, have found themselves 
unable to see how the struggles of the day 
could be carried out to a successful issue 
without the recourse to arms ; instead of act- 
ing up to their inner sense of Christian duty, 
and leaving results to Him who rejoices more 
to be worshipped as a God of love and peace, 
than appealed to as a God of battles. Have 
these persons forgotten how the walls of Jer- 
icho fell down at the sound of trumpets 
blown with a blast of living faith ! Have 
they never read how, more than once, the 






* 95 * 



^•Pfc 




vm 



* £be purity anfc Deetini? * 

enemies of Israel were scattered by the inter- 
position of divine power, without a blow 
struck by the Sword of Gideon ; and this 
long before the people were blessed with the 
light of the Gospels ! Is it not time the 
world began to understand, that if in the or- 
derings of God's providence there is need of 
men to fight, it is because there are men 
whose progress in Christian development has 
not yet rooted out the elements of war from 
their natures. No pure health can be en- 
joyed by the human system so long as dis- 
ease is lurking in the vital parts ; and as long 
as the passions that culminate in war are cir- 
culating in humanity, no matter how deep 
under the surface, so long will occasions be 
presented for working them out ; it being 
always the prerogative of God, and of Him 
only, to bring good out of this direful evil. 

If we are asked what we would have men 
do in this emergency of the nation's existence, 
we would say, let every one go to his God in 
humble, earnest prayer for such knowledge 
as shall show him his highest duty, and when 
found, do it unselfishly, with all his might. 
Let him not however deceive himself by sup- 
posing that he is therefore acting up to the 
Christ teachings, because he is fulfilling what 
►5< 96 >j» 



JfettS-;. ■•.-.- .' -v'^i':Ov^4;^ %£: -4 





* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

he finds to be his highest duty. But let him 
rather pray the more earnestly to God that 
he may receive the true Christ spirit, and 
sense of Christian duty, the more he finds 
himself called to act at variance with the 
clear, unmistakable precepts of the Founder 
of his professed faith ; for it is a thing of 
growth, and nothing short of miraculous in- 
tervention will give him the true sense, the 
true light at once. The trouble is, that men, 
having no knowledge of, and giving no rec- 
ogniion to the guidance of the Spirit, use 
their minds first to find out what course of 
conduct to pursue, and then go to God to 
ask his help in carrying out their plans of 
management ; instead of lifting up their hearts 
first in humble prayer to Him for guidance, 
and then following the lead of the Spirit with 
all their minds ! Thus it is that we have had 
all the while the strange spectacle presented, 
apparently so contradictory, in the civil war 
now raging, of clergy and laity on both sides, 
sending up fervent appeals to their God of 
battles to bless each their cause, which each 
had previously in the exercise of their wise 
self-relying heads, stimulated more or less by 
their passions, determined should be main- 
tained and defended by all the arts of war 

* 97 * 



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* ftbe purity ant) Destiny * 

of which modern Christian civilization can 
boast ! 

In another relation, one which concerns 
humanity perhaps more nearly than any 
other, inasmuch as every child that is born 
into earth life is fashioned according to its 
conditions, we mean the marriage relation, 
we would ask, how nearly do men and wo- 
men conform to the true Christ life ? Is 
this relation conducted in accordance with 
that Christ spirit which teaches them to love 
one another as little children ; and do they 
herein show forth a living faith in those 
words of Jesus, " Whom God hath joined, 
let no man put asunder " ? The growing 
tendency in all legislation to facilitate divorce, 
is a short answer to the latter question ; 
whilst the former is pointedly met, by simply 
referring to the little improvement in the huT 
man race, both in its physical and spiritual 
development, from generation to generation, 
notwithstanding its changing conditions. But 
we have too much to say upon this sacred 
topic, to enlarge upon it at this time. 

Other points of view might be taken, from 
which a close scrutiny would show still fur- 
ther inconsistencies between the teachings of 
the Master, and the lives of his professed 
>£ 98 $ 







uSjsffi 




* of flfcofcern Spiritualism * 





followers. Too long have these inconsis- 
tencies been allowed to remain unmolested ; 
too often have they given opportunity to un- 
believing critics to frame arguments against 
Christianity, which no honest man can an- 
swer, and no sensitive soul hear without a 
blush of shame. They have been kept too 
much out of sight, and considered too much 
out of the reach of modern faith to remedy. 
But we hasten to meet the inquiry, which we 
feel is pressing upon us, " What has Modern 
Spiritualism to offer towards helping men 
out of these admitted inconsistencies ? " We 
have been told, says the inquirer, from the 
Master's own lips, that the hardness of heart, 
which could not be touched by the sayings 
of Moses and the Prophets, would "not be- 
lieve, though one rose from the dead " ; and 
it can hardly be supposed that any less ef- 
ficacy to convert sinners is to be found in the 
teachings of Jesus, than in the sayings of 
Moses and the Prophets. " Of what avail 
to Christians then, this modern necromancy" ! 
An inquiry based upon such a suggestion 
of argument, and it is the first suggested, 
the most natural, and the most potent argu- 
ment that can be used, indicates the idea of 
Modern Spiritualism entertained by most 





* 



99 



* 



O 




----- 





* Zbc purity anb Destiny * 

unbelievers, and indeed by many believers, 
that the whole meaning and value of the 
phenomena is, in establishing the fact, that 
the spirits of the departed do exist in spheres 
more or less near to the earth life, and in 
the accompanying joy of communing directly 
with them. The truth however is, and we 
would proclaim it to the ends of the earth, 
to the many Spiritualists who are yet groping 
about in search for it, and to the unbelievers 
who stand outside hardly condescending to 
recognize the simplest facts of the phenom- 
ena, much less trying to ascertain their mean- 
ing, the truth is, and herein lies the answer 
to the inquiry so directly put, that these new 
conditions, and apparently strange relations 
between the spirit and earth life, are chiefly 
important as means to a great end, namely 
the more complete opening of the heart of hu- 
manity to the influences of the Holy Spirit ! 
Thus, whilst we admit that the mere raising 
of the spirits of the dead is not itself of vital 
importance, however novel and interesting, 
and does not of itself possess any power to 
save, we say that the influences which the 
spirits of the departed, coming with the an- 
gels of God, are now empowered to bring 
and communicate to those in the earth life, 




* 



* 



* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 



constitute a new element of power not before 
manifested or exercised, at least in the man- 
ner, and to the extent, now permitted in this 
the fulness of time. The value of Modern 
Spiritualism is not to be found in those phys- 
ical manifestations which strike so many- 
minds as too trivial to be worthy of the higher 
spirit life, nor in those communications, 
which, though often full of beauty and wis- 
dom, do not inculcate any new doctrines of 
life, or in their highest reaches suggest any 
better teachings than those already handed 
down to this generation in the blessed words 
of Jesus. No, it is the influence of the Holy 
Spirit, which filled the souls of the early Apos- 
tles, and is now waiting to be poured into 
our hearts through this channel of communi- 
cation, this instrumentality of God's appoint- 
ment, that constitutes the real value, the 
momentous power and importance of Mod- 
ern Spiritualism. That these things do not 
originate with man, most persons are now 
ready to admit. They are indeed of and 
from God. Christ cometh that all things 
may be fulfilled. Refuse not to believe be- 
cause the manner of his coming is not in ac- 
cordance with your expectations, or your 
human judgment of probabilities. Remem- 

>J< IOI |$ 



SH' 






* Zbc purity anD ©estinp * 

ber how the Jews stumbled, because they 
could not find in the humble Nazarene, those 
evidences of an earthly kingdom which they 
had anticipated. Like a thief in the night, 
is he coming ; yet like a Prince of Peace. 
Oh blessed light that shines through the 
dark cloud which now hangs over this peo- 
ple, with a deepening gloom, unfathomable 
to the eye of reason. To the eye of faith, 
the living faith as it is in Christ, which can 
be known only through the heart, the silver 
lining of the dark shroud is visible, and a 
divine hope awakened to give new courage 
to suffering souls, which shall sustain them 
to the end. 

Modern Spiritualism is then no new cf Cul- 
tus," but rather a process in the develop- 
ment of an old " Cultus," amounting in its 
fullness to a new Dispensation. The spirit 
world, with all its quickening influences for 
good and for evil, is brought close to the 
earth life. The evil influences come to tempt, 
to try, to judge, and to be judged ; minis- 
tering spirits and angels come also, not in 
idle pastime, but in serious, earnest endeavor 
to reach the hearts of those, who by inherit- 
ance, and their own contact with the exte- 
rior world, are hardened against the things of 

>£ I02 ►£ 



* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

the spirit ; and the labor has been, and is, to 
lift humanity into a condition receptive to 
the blessed influences which they have 
brought with them, even the influences of 
the Holy Spirit. Thus are all men to be 
raised up to a higher plane of spiritual vision, 
so that they can see and comprehend the 
meaning of the Scriptures, which are illu- 
minated by this increased light. The truths 
in the teachings of Jesus are now vitalizing 
to the conception of believers. There is no 
longer occasion for scholastic criticism, or 
learned intellectual disputations, on the mean- 
ings of words ; for the meaning intended 
to be conveyed by them, their true spiritual 
power and influence, flows out into the re- 
ceptive soul independently of the mere dress, 
the external form of its expression. As in 
the days of their utterance, the words of Je- 
sus were heard, but not understood ; so in 
this latter day, their deep meaning, their full 
significance, their hidden power, their life- 
giving influence has not reached the indi- 
vidual hearts of the people, or never could 
the inconsistencies, and short-comings, be 
found in the modern Christian life to which 
we have referred. It is by opening the hearts 
of the men and women of this generation, so 
* 103 ►!■ 







* £be purity anfc Besting 



* 




that having ears to hear, they may hear and 
comprehend, and carry out into practice, 
those very teachings of Jesus, that the revival 
of the ancient faith, the first great work of 
this new dispensation, is to be accomplished. 
Already has this work been begun with thou- 
sands of quiet Spiritualists, who are patiently 
waiting on the Lord ; whilst the ever active 
and forth putting influences of Anti-Christ 
have endeavored to fasten upon the cause, 
the stigma of Bible Infidelity. 

The power of this spirit influence is begin- 
ning to be made manifest in the development 
of knowledge of things spiritual, which is yet 
to be a wonder to the world. Only the 
germs of truth lie, more or less concealed, 
in the brief recorded teachings of Jesus. 
Germs of all truth they are, and first planted 
upon the earth sphere by him, through the 
grace of God, more than eighteen centuries 
ago. They have been all this while working 
their way through the crust of earth, their 
delicate points cleaving the hard-hearted soil 
in which they were set, and now, touched by 
the quickening rays of the returning Sun of 
righteousness, are beginning to send their 
branches out, and to spring forth to a growth, 
that shall be worthy of the long preparation. 



* of flfeofcern Spiritualism * 

We are lost in contemplation of the possibil- 
ities of development in man's nature and sur- 
roundings, through his spiritual progression. 
These are, and will be, the natural growth of 
seeds already sown. They cannot pretend 
to be of any other, or higher origin than the 
early Christ germs ; but in their develop- 
ment, there should be expected, in all phases 
of being, really new manifestations, new 
thoughts, a new understanding of the vari- 
ous works of creation, new conceptions of 
the earth life and its relations to the spirit 
world, which, as they spring forth, will ar- 
range themselves, like new leaves in beauti- 
ful order, on the broad and ever spreading 
tree of knowledge. 

We should be glad to explain our mean- 
ing more at length, but must content our- 
selves, for the present, with a brief reference 
to two exemplifications, from among the 
many which have come within our experi- 
ence. The first of these, we find in a very 
beautiful and interesting manifestation of 
spirit presence and power, recently given in 
our presence, through a Medium, whose 
own spiritual condition is a sad evidence, 
amongst the many we have known, that 
physical manifestations have in themselves 
* 105 £ 



* Gbe purity anfc> Destiny * 

no saving grace, no healing power, but are 
only the necessary means of breaking down 
the obstacles which in this day of materialism, 
prevent the access, and impede the growth, 
of a living faith. After several other experi- 
mental tests, not particularly interesting to 
us, though calculated to astonish, and at least 
puzzle, a fresh inquirer into the phenomena ; 
a piece of plain white card board, which had 
been carefully marked so as to identify it, 
was placed in the left hand of one of the com- 
pany who sat next to the Medium. In the 
right hand of the same person were placed 
three pencils, two of crayon, colored red and 
green, and one of common black lead, so that 
they extended horizontally over the card 
board, and about two inches above it. The 
card board and pencils, in the position de- 
scribed were then held by the same person 
under the table, out of sight ; whilst the hands 
of all the others present were placed upon the 
table. Within half a minute, the card board 
was produced, and to the astonishment and 
delight of all, there appeared upon its before 
unsullied surface a beautiful wreath, delicately 
drawn and colored, the vine and leaves in 
green, thick set with red roses in bud and full 
bloom, and within the wreath, finely written 
1 06 £ 




* of flfcofcern Spiritualism * 

in black lead, but distinctly legible, a mes- 
sage of love signed by the name of a child, 
who was in the spirit world, unbeknown to 
the Medium, and to most of those present. 
Upon inquiry, it appeared, that the pencils 
had remained during their concealment, in 
the same position as first placed, a slight vi- 
bration in them only having been recognized. 
Our theory of the process was, that the pic- 
ture was first conceived complete in its spirit 
form, then brought near to the card board 
and pencils, so that the elements of color 
could be abstracted from the pencils, and, as 
it were, photographed upon the card board 
by a power, of which we as yet know noth- 
ing beyond this suggestion of its existence. 
We could not resist the further reflection 
that in time to come, it may be long years 
yet, the relations of humanity to the spirit 
world might be so far changed and advanced, 
that this power could be brought into com- 
mon practical use, in a way that would lift 
art to a pinnacle of power and beauty never 
before dreamed of. 

Our other exemplification is not an exter- 
nal manifestation, but an internal unfolding. 
Through Modern Spiritualism we have ar- 
rived at an understanding of the origin, 

% 107 % 




* Zbe purity anfc Destiny * 

growth, and purpose of all earth life, of which 
we before had no conception. This under- 
standing, like all our knowledge of things 
spiritual, apart from their phenomenal mani- 
festations, is a natural out-growth in our 
minds, stimulated into life by the influences 
with which we were first brought into com- 
munion through the person, to whose deep 
religious nature, and spiritual development, 
we have before referred. Little by little, 
sometimes quite disconnectedly, with occa- 
sional direct promptings, have these thoughts 
come to us, and by slow degrees gathered to 
make a symmetrical, harmonious philosophy 
of nature, which we feel is very truth, for it 
is from God. Perhaps some of the ideas, 
possibly all of them, for we are yet in our 
childhood, just beginning to read the book 
of life, have been given to the world in days 
gone by ; but they come to us anew as in- 
spiration, for which we thank only the Giver 
of all good gifts. Every growing thing on 
the earth plane has its spirit life and form, 
and is but the external expression of the spi- 
rit reality, the earthly habiliment of spirit life, 
made thus external, in order to be cogniza- 
ble to humanity. Let us confine our observa- 
tion to one phase of this external expression ; 

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* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

for instance, to vegetable life. We find then 
that the office of the earth-born flower is, 
not merely to delight the senses of man, and 
amuse his hours of idleness or recreation, but 
more than all, to throw upon him influences 
directly from the spirit life, of which it is the 
medium of expression to his earthly sense. 
In form and color suggestive of harmony, 
they accomplish much ; but as mediums for 
the transmission, sometimes of a life-giving 
fragrance, and sometimes of a noxious poison, 
do the flowers of earth now appear to us as 
acting a most important part in the develop- 
ment of humanity. The odor is itself of 
spirit origin, and exists in spirit life, the 
flower being the naturally appointed agent, 
or medium, to express it on the earth plane. 
Herein we find an explanation of what has 
heretofore been an inexplicable mystery to 
the best of science, namely, how the fragrance 
could be continually given forth, a real es- 
sence filling the air, and yet no discoverable 
reduction, or abstraction, of the substance of 
the flower. The skilful anatomist has dis- 
sected these little creatures of God's love 
down into their most inmost recesses, where 
the odor seems to have its birth-place ; but 
the mystery is still unsolved, until we con- 



* Gbe purity anfc Besting * 

ceive the idea of fragrance existing first in the 
spirit life, and then poured through these 
delicate organisms of divine appointment, and 
made cognizable to human sense. The 
flower in fact gives nothing forth from itself, 
but is only the conduit, the beautiful me- 
dium for external expression of spirit life and 
power, and is able, be it never so tender and 
delicate, to continue its functions of trans- 
mission, whilst its natural life is prolonged. 

Let us carry this conception a little fur- 
ther. Does it not throw a flood of light 
upon the mystery of human life ? What 
are human beings, but the external expres- 
sions, upon the earth plane, of spirit forms 
and spirit life. What are we but mediums, 
all and each, in varying degrees, for the out- 
ward manifestation of good and evil influ- 
ences, that are thrown into, and poured 
through us, for the world's weal or woe ? In 
one respect we differ from the flower, and 
that is in the capability of our natures in 
great measure to determine for ourselves, 
under the grace of God, whether we will 
continue to be channels for the communica- 
tion of much evil, mingled with a little good, 
or whether we will become so purified, 
through the life that is in Christ, that none 
>Ji no * 



* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

but pure influences shall be made manifest 
in our lives. The subject is capable of in- 
definite extension. We leave it here, with 
the earnest prayer that all men may soon ac- 
cept its deep significance, and ever remem- 
ber, that it lies with each one to determine, 
whether he will draw from his surroundings, 
and give forth in his life, poisonous elements 
of evil ; or whether he will spread far and 
wide only such sweet, life-giving fragrance 
as the Father's love vouchsafes to dispense 
through him unto his race. 

But interesting, as we must admit such 
trains of thought have been, and are to our 
minds, they are like all philosophizing, insuf- 
ficient food to satisfy those yearnings of the 
spirit which reach up after the Father's love, 
as its only true life. To drink from that 
fountain, " whose water shall be in those who 
drink it, a well of water springing up unto 
everlasting life," this should be the longing, 
as it is the greatest joy of the soul. We 
welcome then those influences which will aid, 
as they have already aided many, in finding 
that fountain of living waters, by opening 
the heart and mind to a true reception and 
understanding of the teachings of Jesus. 
And especially would we remember, and try 
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to comprehend the deep import of, that say- 
ing of the Master, " He that rejecteth me 
and receiveth not my words, hath one that 
judgeth him, the Word that I have spoken, 
the same shall judge him on the last day." 
We feel, we know, that these words have a 
significant application to this day and hour. 
Christ, the Master, calls us to look into our- 
selves, and out of our own mouths to save 
or to condemn. The Bridegroom cometh, 
we know not the day, nor the hour ; but he 
cometh, and the angels are preparing the way. 
The evil that is in men must be eradicated, 
burned out from the face of the earth ; and 
it will be done, nay is doing now ; the ele- 
ments are now gathering in for the final day, 
when God, through Christ, shall reign. As 
the lightning shineth from the East unto the 
West so is the Christ influence now spread- 
ing, and spread, over the earth, quickening 
every good and evil element of life into new 
and unwonted activity. It is idle to attempt 
to fix any period according to our finite 
measure of time, when the culmination of 
these passing events shall be brought about. 
It may be many years yet : the processes of 
God's providence have ever been gradual in 
their development. We know not the day 

^i 112 >J< 






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of flDobern Spiritualism * 

nor the hour. We know, we can know, only 
the duties which each day and hour, as they 
come, bring with them ; and this is enough, 
for it demands all our best energies to fulfil 
these duties with our whole heart. Under 
the Father's blessing, influences from the 
spirit world have now come to help us in 
their daily fulfilment, so that through a 
knowledge of God, we can say in very truth, 
in every moment of each day, that we are 
doing His will ; that His business is our busi- 
ness, and our business His ; that our great 
desire is to be humbly worthy to receive the 
blessed salutation from the Master, "well 
done good and faithful servant." Thus, and 
thus only, will the selfish ends of life be lost 
sight of; thus will men labor at their daily 
avocations, not to earn the means to gratify 
their selfish desires, but to do God service. 
Thus will they be practically seeking first 
the Kingdom of Heaven ; and as surely as 
there is a living God, shall all necessary things, 
whether in their spiritual or material wants, 
be added unto them. 

Let us then, each and all, thank God for 
the new Dispensation, whose work is only 
commenced when men, through its influences, 
begin to understand truly, and to carry into 

*. IJ 3 * 




* flDofcern Spiritualism * 

practice, the teachings of the Holy Book. 
In other ways of its own is it bringing, and 
will it bring men to the fountain of life, from 
which it is itself an out-pouring, the sweet 
savor of whose waters shall entice all who 
drink of it to follow the living stream up to 
its living head. Behold ! — that "pure River 
of Water of Life, clear as crystal, pro- 
ceeding out of the throne of God, and of 
the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, 
on either side of the river, is the Tree of 
Life : " * * * " And the leaves of the tree 
are for the healing of the Nations." 

January, 1863. 









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^V^,.. ....... ....,; 



* 



* 



THE PURITY AND DESTINY OF 
MODERN SPIRITUALISM. 



Seconb Series 



* 



*Bmim: 




* 



* 






" All history shows that the first article of a saving 
faith, for any land or time, is faith that there is a 
Power in this universe strong enough to make truth- 
seeking safe, and good enough to make truth-telling use- 
ful:' 

Pres. A. D. White, 

Cornell. 











* 



* 



SECOND SERIES. 
1883. 



. - 



m& 






ORIGINAL PREFATORY NOTE. 

To minds familiar with modern things of 
the spirit, which are rapidly ceasing to be 
the strange mysteries they at first appeared, 
though yet only partially opened, there may 
seem to be little that is new in these pages. 
But they have been written, and are now 
published, for the uninitiated, as well as for 
those acquainted with the facts and experi- 
ences. Through all there has been no seek- 
ing after novelty, but rather and only for 
the truth. 

Should some of the inquiry seem like 
probing into the ways of God, or too much 
like that feeling after the " print of the 
nails," which alone could persuade the doubt- 
ing disciple, the writer can only say that it 
is in accord with the need of his own mind, 




* Zhe purity anb Besting * 

as well as with the development of the day, 
that man should in all things find a " reason 
for his faith," if he can ; the limit of such 
inquiry, though not always of his attainment, 
being only in his capacity to shape his ques- 
tioning. Not in conceit or presumption let 
the asking mind raise its thought to the 
highest, but in that sure trust which should 
ever bring the sincere child to the good 
Father, with uplifted head and outstretched 
arms, for the blessings of His great love, the 
inspiration of His ever waiting spirit of 
truth. 






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* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 



ARTICLE IV. 

Spiritualism the Opening Way. 

An emblem strangely found. — Various good shown. 
— Gifts of the Spirit. — Efficacy of prayer. — In- 
dividual freedom. — No eternal punishment. — 
Neglected opportunities. — No concealment of 
wrong doing. — Freedom in love to be in ser- 
vice of God. — Supremacy of the Spiritual. — 
Errors committed.- — Forces of the new Dispen- 
sation. — Methods, meaning, and mission of spirit 
workers. — Trials of Mediumship. — Appeal to 
the churches. 

"Unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and 
unto the Greeks foolishness," were the 
words written eighteen centuries ago, of the 
dispensation then opening. History repeats 
itself; and again the announcement of new 
truth, and a greater possibility in the world's 
development, has proved a stumbling-block 
to many. To others, and these no longer 
an exceptional few, Modern Spiritualism has 
proved An Opening Way, — often through 

l£ 119 >& 



* £be purity anb ©eetinp * 

struggle which has seemed like climbing the 
very steeps of Calvary, to be rewarded at 
the summit with such joyful assurance, such 
peaceful outlook, such knowledge, and such 
faith, as have well repaid all the toil and 
pain of the sharp ascent. Largely out of 
knowledge so attained and assured, these 
pages are written. 

Walking one day of December, 1862, 
upon a familiar railroad causeway within the 
limits of Boston, our attention was drawn to 
a piece of granitic quartz, lying among the 
ten thousand other stones which formed the 
gravelly embankment. On picking it up 
and turning it over we found that a portion 
of the stone had crumbled out from the 
under side, so as to leave two veins of white 
quartz, easily recognized, though roughly 
broken, to be in the form of the Christian 
cross. We accepted the emblem with joy 
and trembling. Such, we thought, had been 
our experience in the cause of modern Spir- 
itualism. Drawn first to examine the ex- 
ternal phenomena seemingly from motives 
of curiosity, we had learned, upon entering 
deeper into the examination, that we had 
found no bauble with which to amuse an 
idle hour, but had taken up the cause, the 
* 120 ig 





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^^SKgjS 





* of flfcofcern Spiritualism * 

very cross of Christ, — the cross, because it 
had been the occasion of the deepest suffer- 
ing in our life hitherto ; and of Christ, 
because the suffering had come ever out of 
our desire and persistent search after the true 
way of life in all things, both of the body 
and spirit. 

Under similar promptings and convictions 
others have entered upon labors to which 
they have felt themselves called in the name 
of Spiritualism, through trial and suffering 
finding their better purification. Many in- 
quirers, however, have been prone to think 
that in their simple acceptance of the spirit- 
ual phenomena they have not only found 
the way to heaven, but have entered the 
very gates ! To such we would say, there 
is no high-road opened now, more than 
before, upon which an idler has merely to 
set his foot and find himself drawn up to 
the heavenly mansions without effort or 
labor on his part. The recorded errors of 
early Spiritualists are like gravestones, mark- 
ing the spots where the seekers after modern 
spiritual things have been drawn off into 
pitfalls sunk of old to catch all who might 
wander from the true path ; while the suc- 
cesses of others only point the way up the 



* 



* 











* ftbe Jpuritp anfc Destiny * 

steep ascent, which is yet full of dangers and 
obstacles. That these difficulties should 
become less and less numerous, and more 
easily overcome as the pilgrim advances in 
the search after truth, is to be expected, and 
will be realized in proportion as he is faithful 
to his highest promptings at and from the 
start ; and so each succeeding generation of 
men will advance on the pathway of true life, 
as the generation passing away has brought 
the race nearer to a condition able to welcome 
the coming of God's kingdom. But there 
is work, much work, to be done yet. 

It may help the minds of those who are 
not likely to come otherwise into present 
contact with what seems to us a momentous 
subject, to learn something of the work it 
has accomplished and is still doing in the 
development of ideas essential to man's 
progress, against the continued indifference 
or opposition of the most cultured minds, 
and the united desire and effort of old science 
to put down the ghost that will keep rising, 
with ever-renewed power, to baffle and dis- 
appoint all efforts for its suppression. The 
old cry, " Who will show us any good ? " 
is repeated by many of Modern Spiritualism. 
Having found much good, we would en- 

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* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

deavor to show it to others, — not for the 
sake of proselyting, for experience has shown 
too well that belief in these things cannot be 
forced before its time, but for the enlighten- 
ment of many who, having never sought to 
penetrate within even the outermost circle 
of physical manifestations, are waiting the 
good Father's time to bring them into the 
fold which we believe will some day hold all 
the children of men. 

The most obvious good from the advent 
of Modern Spiritualism would seem to be the 
demonstration or evidence of things heretofore 
unseen^ which is given in its simplest manifes- 
tations. Doubtless there are many minds so 
well settled — it may be only through inher- 
itance and unquestioning habit — in their 
convictions as to the momentous question 
of the after-life, that it is not easy for them 
to understand the needs of the very many 
others who, in seeking a reason for the faith 
that was in them, have been led off into the 
wilds of mysticism, or lost in the desert sands 
of materialism, and to whom the lowest forms 
of modern spiritual manifestations have 
brought the only light that could help them 
out of their difficulties. The tiny raps, so 
much abused by the wise in the wisdom of 

* - I2 3 * 



* £be purity anfc 3E>C6tin^ * 








earth, have brought such comforting assurance 
to minds desponding of the future state, as all 
the reasoning of the pulpit and the demonstra- 
tions of mundane science could not have 
begun to afford. More than one proud phil- 
osopher has come down upon his knees before 
these simplest evidences of a continuing exist- 
ence, and thanked the good Father that a way- 
had been at last opened to him, small though 
it be, leading up to the heavenly mansions. 
Admitting, for the argument, the uncertainties 
of identity in spirit communication, the bare 
fact of these little sounds being produced un- 
der the guidance of an intelligent power, and 
coming plainly from behind that veil hitherto 
so impenetrable, has reached the minds too 
long habituated to material evidences to be 
able to spiritually discern a spirit presence. 
This age of material advancement could not, 
at first, have recognized the nearer approach 
of the spirit spheres, except through material 
manifestations ; and in time we believe the 
age will lift its hands in gratitude for the 
evidences, however humble, vouchsafed to its 
great need ! 

As the next obvious good, may perhaps 
be named the testimony of Modern Spiritual- 
ism upon the subject of Faith, which has 
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* of flftofcern Spiritualism * 

occupied the Christian mind so much. The 
saving faith insisted upon so strenuously by 
evangelical disputants, as a condition prece- 
dent to salvation, and made a requirement 
of the church-member without which there 
could be no fellowship, under the light of 
Spiritualism is shown to be only a compli- 
ance with the common law of all life ; viz., 
that neither good nor evil can reach an un- 
willing recipient as they can the willing mind, 
and that nothing is so sure to impede prog- 
ress in any direction as the lack of willingness 
to receive truth, whether it accord with pre- 
conceived opinions or not. Having once 
formulated its dogmas, the Church has been 
prone to resist innovation, and thereby ne- 
cessarily to retard growth in any direction of 
thought not in harmony with its settled 
creeds. It has been slow to understand the 
simple meaning of such words of the Master 
as " Thy faith hath made thee whole," — 
attributing a mystical value to the accepta- 
tion of certain forms of belief, when the 
whole virtue of the condition denominated 
Faith is simply in its receptivity, or willing- 
ness to receive. The testimony of Spiritu- 
alism in this direction is interesting and 
instructive, showing through all the forms 
* 125 £1 







* Zhc purity anfc E>e0ttn\> * 



of manifestation the same undeviating law, 
whether in the first approaches of opinionated 
scientists to the simplest physical demonstra- 
tions of the after-life, or in the seekings 
of avowed believers after the more hidden 
things of the spirit, where the faculty of 
spiritual discernment is called into action. 
The state of mind of the investigator has 
again and again proved a stumbling-block 
to the manifestations, when the gathering 
has been made wholly or mostly of scientific 
experts, who will insist upon applying their 
old mundane tape-measure to conditions ut- 
terly foreign to such use. Often, too, have 
companies of avowed Spiritualists failed to 
reach the inner sanctuary by their lack of 
the childlike receptive condition of mind, 
which alone can find out the heavenly mys- 
teries. The lesson shown in the violent 
conversion of the Apostle Paul still fails to 
reach the minds of men learned in things 
pertaining to the earth plane, so that as a 
class they will not, perhaps cannot, receive 
the new philosophy, until brought into it 
by some prostrating experience, from which 
they may rise wiser and better men. The 
few marked exceptions only serve, as usual, 
to prove the rule ; and, as in other steps of 
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* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

the world's development, the new knowledge 
has found favor with the humbler, before 
gradually working up into the higher walks 
of earth life. Again and again, truth must 
need be cradled in a manger. Should it be 
said that such kind of receptive faith opens 
the way to evil as well as good, the reply is 
frankly : Yes ; such is the law of our being. 
The willingness to receive must ever be 
directed to that which is good. We cannot 
escape this responsibility : it is inherent in 
the conditions of free-will, which is the birth- 
right of humanity, and out of which will 
come the glory and the joy of man's final 
redemption. 

To the fear sometimes expressed, that 
such knowledge of things spiritual would 
take away all occasion for that exercise of 
faith which trusts where it cannot see, so 
commended by the churches, and often 
blindly held to be one of the saving graces 
of the Christian profession, we would say 
that man need not be troubled lest he will 
ever advance so far in finding out God, 
that there will be nothing left for him on 
which to exercise this spirit of trust. As in 
mundane science, the further the student 
penetrates, the wider appears the field of 



i$< 127 >j« 



* Zhe purity anfc ©estinp * 

discovery yet to be explored, so in things 
spiritual the most gifted seer reports of the 
fathomless beyond — the ever-opening, ever- 
receding mysteries of God. 

Another good brought by modern Spirit- 
ualism is the light it has thrown upon the 
efficacy of Prayer. Hesitating to believe 
that the great Mind, by whom the universe 
has come into being and is hourly sustained, 
can be sufficiently concerned with the little 
things of individual experience to answer the 
calls of humanity, and accepting the idea of 
law in all the outworkings of the Divine 
Being, men have inclined more and more to 
doubt the efficacy of prayer. Unable to see 
the method of response, they have denied 
the possibility. Spiritualism solves the prob- 
lem by showing the method. Prayers are 
the expression of the soul's desires. Earn- 
estness and sincerity are the chief requisites 
for their potency. Now, just as a parent or 
friend hearing the prayer, or — what is equiv- 
alent — knowing the deep desire of a child, 
will labor to bring a response and satisfy the 
longing if it seem wise and good, so the 
friends about us, unseen by the natural eye, 
are near enough to hear our prayers, to know 
our deep desires, and equally to labor for 
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* of flfeofcern Spiritualism * 



w£%m 






their satisfaction. That they can and do 
thus influence events, — by acting upon the 
minds of others in the form, in whose power 
it is to bring about the answer to our prayers, 
as well as in other ways' of their own, — is 
proved beyond a doubt by the facts of Mod- 
ern Spiritualism. To the question which at 
once comes to the inquirer, Shall we then 
address our prayers to the spirits and not to 
God ? our reply is certainly, No. We 
should cripple the very power we would 
call to our aid by such asking. The mighty 
Spirit of God pervades the denizens of the 
spirit spheres, operating through them as 
part of its myriad agencies, as it does in its 
more apparent outworkings through external 
humanity. The reaching after that Spirit 
sets into action all the springs of being that 
are situated or conditioned so as to be moved 
by it ; and the prayer, instead of being lim- 
ited to one sole agency, as it would be if 
addressed to one known spirit in the spheres 
about us, may call to our aid many unseen 
and unknown influences, glad to be the 
instruments of the divine Mind in answer- 
ing the cries of earth's children. The 
use of prayer as a means or condition for 
bringing the soul into harmony with God is 

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^mw^m, 




* Zhe purity ant) Besting * 

distinct from its efficacy for special response ; 
but, in this direction also, Spiritualism shows 
how prayer to the good Father will move his 
loving angels to bring the heavenly peace 
and strength to the communing soul. 

Another good in Spiritualism is its encour- 
agement of Individuality, and independence 
of the old bonds of Creed and Church. No 
reliance on what another has done or suffered, 
no passport from any church, no forgiving of 
sins by the mouth of any prelate, no assump- 
tion of another's holiness, proves to be of 
avail, according to the unvarying testimony of 
Spiritualism. Every man must work out his 
own salvation : not without help from others, 
it may be, — for we are all members one of 
another, — but without benefit of the passion 
of any other, save as it has operated to show 
the way of life and instil the principle of 
sacrifice. To Liberal Christianity such views 
are not new ; but the testimony of Spiritual- 
ism is not therefore to be repulsed : rather is 
it to be welcomed as a coadjutor in the work 
of liberalizing all churches ; for it is testi- 
mony, not argument — evidence, not asser- 
tion. Silently, but surely, it is doing its 
work in this direction, as is apparent to every 
unprejudiced observer; — co-operating with 

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* of fIDobern Spiritualism * 

and stimulating the efforts of the human 
mind of this day and generation to an under- 
standing, such as has not yet been attained, 
of the " liberty wherewith Christ hath made 
us free." " Spiritualism," says a recent in- 
spirational speaker, " teaches the necessity of 
good works done for humanity, rather than 
intellectual submission to a tenet. The spirits 
who claim happy states of life [ in the spirit 
spheres ] invariably ascribe their condition 
to deeds rather than creeds." 

Interesting and important, too, is the tes- 
timony of Spiritualism upon the question of 
an Eternal Hell, for so many years one of 
the cherished tenets of the Christian Church 
and still dwarfing by its terrors no small por- 
tion of the Christian fold. That there is 
punishment, and enough of it, for all the 
misdeeds of earth-life, is sadly proved by the 
" cries of remorse from those in the shadowy 
places " of the world beyond ; but every- 
where and under all conditions the law of 
progression and development is proclaimed. 
The eternity ( aion ) of punishment is not 
everlasting, but, as the Greek word properly 
translated means, it is of indefinite duration, 
and determined by laws of being and states 
of life of which we know as yet but little, — 

* 13 1 * 




* Zhe ipurtty anfc Deettn^ * 









pointing, however, always to a possible ter- 
mination of the retribution, which has come 
as the inevitable judgment of divine law 
broken or unheeded in earth life. As the 
kingdom of heaven was proclaimed to be 
within, so are the judgment-seat and the 
terrors of hell, according to Spiritualism, — 
each having its natural and necessary out- 
working and manifestation in surroundings 
which belong to the spiritual states so de- 
scribed. Dark as Erebus are the shadows 
enveloping some unhappy spirits, as they are 
seen by seers sufficiently developed ; and 
bright as the natural eye has never seen, are 
the shining raiments of the "just made per- 
fect." 

In this connection may be stated the testi- 
mony from the spirit-spheres as to the suffer- 
ing consequent upon neglect of opportunities 
for good, as well as wrong done. Frequently 
this is given in regard to the use of property 
during earth-life, and in the final disposition 
at its close. Holding with unrecognized 
greed to the things of earth, the earth-bound 
spirit, ere it passes beyond the control of its 
material possessions, too often seeks to tie 
the hands, and hearts too, of those who are 
to come into possession, and by ingenious 



* 



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* of flfcobern Spiritualism * 

devices to continue the sense of holding and 
controlling what it knows it must soon sur- 
render. When such a spirit has passed over 
the river it cannot rise, because of the weight 
of neglected opportunities. It comes back; 
nay, it has not left the earth, though out of 
its material form, and cannot leave it, for the 
heavenly spheres, until relieved in some way 
of the terrible burden of misused earthly pos- 
sessions. Fear of retribution is not the high- 
est motive to appeal to ; love, not fear, should 
be, and surely is to be, the rule of earth-life, 
as well as of the heavenly spheres. But the 
knowledge, — for it is knowledge, — which 
comes from the unvarying testimony of 
Spiritualism in this regard, must be a help to 
some minds thus led to hesitate ; men other- 
wise unmoved would become accessible to 
the approaches of their better angels, and 
obedient to the promptings of their own 
better natures. 

Again, Spiritualism has done and is doing 
good by demonstrating the folly of attempt- 
ing to conceal wrong. Mankind instinct- 
ively feel that the all-seeing Eye is upon 
them ; but the universality of the fact, and 
the seeming distance of the Ruler of the 
universe, encourage wrong-doers to a strange 

* J 33 * 




Zbc purity atto Besting * 

indifference to what should be a potently 
restraining influence. Shutting their eyes to 
God, they half believe that he is not looking 
at them when the moment of temptation and 
yielding comes. When it is understood 
that God sees and acts through many agen- 
cies, and that he is indeed ever beholding 
all his children of earth through the watchful 
eyes of dear ones "gone before," — that a 
" cloud of witnesses " is at our right hand 
and at our left, counting among its number 
a father or mother, sister or brother, the 
nearest, dearest friend perhaps we have 
known, — it must "give us pause," as it 
does and often has to sincere Spiritualists, 
when we are led into paths of danger. The 
angel bands can and do bring helping hands 
and new strength in the hour of our need. 
They can and do thus aid those who are 
unable yet to recognize or admit the possi- 
bility of their ministrations, — but under 
difficulty, because of the unbelief which 
repels their approaches and continually 
checks the good they would gladly do 
Witnesses they are of our daily acts and 
thoughts ; closer than we know they come 
into our lives and have access to our in- 
ner chambers. From them, as from God 

* J 34 * 



* of flfeofcern Spiritualism * 

and our own selves, there is no conceal- 
ment. 

From them, too, we learn the error of 
the old saying, " Speak nothing but good 
of the dead." They come to us from their 
spirit abodes with their eyes opened to any 
ill conditions in which they have been 
removed from earth-life, and with entreaties 
urge upon us to help them relieve their 
souls of the weight of their wrong-doing by 
confession of the most open kind. Speak 
truth of the dead, is the new teaching ; but 
speak it kindly, tenderly, forgivingly. Hav- 
ing sought to cover up their wrong-doing 
when in earth-life, they return to relieve the 
burden of sin by acknowledging the wrong 
and seeking forgiveness of the injured. 
Again and again has this been demonstrated 
to inquirers into Spiritualism. Again and 
again has the cry come back from the 
" spheres beyond," beseeching that there 
should be no more concealment, but open 
confession and endeavor to right the wrong. 

More valuable to many minds has been 
the development, through Spiritualism, of 
the ancient gifts of the spirit, which had so 
nearly died out. Of themselves deeply in- 
teresting and important, their recent man- 

* 135 * 






* £be purity anfc Destiny * 

ifestation has illuminated the records of past 
ages, especially of the early centuries of the 
Christian Church, and helped many persons 
to accept the testimony of those days who 
could not before believe. In general it may 
be said that Spiritualism has thrown a light 
upon the Scriptures which was greatly 
needed by this doubting, questioning, prob- 
ing age ; and with all the talk of some 
extremists about throwing the Bible away, 
it has brought to many, many inquirers 
illustration and explanation of the old rec- 
ords which has given them new meaning 
and value. We heartily commend the testi- 
mony of Spiritualism to all who need help 
in this direction. 

To our mind the work of modern Spirit- 
ualism upon social questions, and especially 
upon the marriage relation, has seemed per- 
haps the most interesting and important. 
While it is to be admitted that varying ideas 
of the marriage relation have been expressed 
through spirit mediums, and some on a low 
plane of selfishness, we hold that on one 
point the testimony of the spirit-spheres has 
been uniform, — though with varying appli- 
cation, according to the development of the 
communicating spirit, or of the medium, or 

%4 I36 %) 










:, '::i 



* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

of the inquirer, or perhaps of them all. 
This point is, freedom for the love prin- 
ciple manifested in the marriage relation. 
That this freedom in its spiritual sense does 
not mean wild license ; that it has regard to 
the eternal principle of truth, and must ever 
be held to that " service " of God " which 
alone is perfect freedom," — there can be no 
doubt. Its practical application to the mar- 
riage relation is a call for purity, — for free- 
dom from the tyrannical power of lust, and 
the abuse of opportunity under cover of 
law. It asserts the right, the bounden duty, 
rather, of woman, to whom the duty first 
belongs, to protect the fountains of life from 
every approach that is not actuated by love, 
and to hold the marriage relation sacred to 
the cause of parentage, for which it was 
divinely instituted. The free love of pure 
Spiritualism is, in fact, above the present 
development of most men and women, and 
not to be easily attained. 

But this idea of freedom emanating from 
the higher spirit-spheres, in its simple state- 
ment, is one thing ; in its form of accepta- 
tion and outworking it may be quite another, 
and varies according to the conditions of 
development it finds to work upon. Thus 

* J 37 * 



s 




* £be purity ant) Besting * 



it has come that so many phases of it 
have been manifested through mediums and 
among Spiritualists ; some of which have so 
justly offended the better sense of those 
still abiding under the old dispensation. 
How the freedom proclaimed for woman 
has been misinterpreted, — how it has been 
construed into a warrant for open breach 
of the laws of the land, and bold defiance 
of established usage, threatening sometimes 
to subvert all social order, and causing the 
very name of Spiritualism to be an offence, 
— is too well known to be rehearsed here. 
The fault has been not in Spiritualism, but 
in its professors, who have fallen into error 
out of their former states. Early Christian- 
ity had to pass through similar experience. 
The sharp rebukes in some of the epistles to 
the recently converted heathens of Corinth, 
show plainly how they committed excesses 
of intemperance, and yet graver offences, at 
their love-feasts. They could not bear the 
opportunity offered in the new rites, which 
proved a temptation to their old conditions. 
How mistaken the more sober-minded of 
the unconverted of the Corinthians would 
have been, to attribute to Christianity the 
vices which seemed thus to find expression 
* 138 * 







* of flfcofcern Spiritualism * 

through the Christian rites, we of this day 
can easily see. Not less mistaken are those 
who attribute to Spiritualism the excesses 
of some of its believers, which are only 
evidences of the low grade of development 
they had attained under their old dispensa- 
tion. Let not the uninitiated be too ready 
to believe that such extravagances show the 
real meaning of the doctrine, or illustrate the 
low degree of the angel messengers who 
brought it. Rather let them inquire into 
the inner mystery of the opening dispensa- 
tion of love, and learn how far it is above 
the average development of our race to-day, 
and to what heights of aspiration and attain- 
ment it is now calling the children of earth. 
To the command, given of old, to subdue 
the earth, no higher obedience can be ren- 
dered by man than this subjection of the 
appetites of the physical to his spiritual 
nature. In other and less difficult ways 
must he learn obedience before he can at- 
tain this greatest of his achievements. In 
all the conditions of his natural life which 
combine to make up his physical well-being, 
especially in the food with which he builds 
up and repairs the daily waste of his body, 
must he learn to give heed to the voice 

J 39 * 




* Zbe purity anfc Weetiny * 



within, selecting ever that which will con- 
duce to the welfare of both body and mind, 
■ — habit soon making easy and joyful what 
at first may seem like sacrifice. 

There must be struggle to attain all this, 
taking man as he is in his best average 
development ; and patience, too, — " patience 
with one another, patience with ourselves, 
patience with God," — ere the great end will 
be reached. That the millennial day is to 
come, is believed by most Christians. It is 
to be brought about, not by any cataclysm, 
not by any sudden fiat of the Almighty, 
but by and through better men and better 
women, better institutions, better philosophy, 
better teachings, better lives. Man can 
never reach his highest development until 
woman rises to the dignity of her great call- 
ing, and, holding herself obedient to the 
voice of the Spirit, brings herself and him 
into perfect accord with the Father's will in 
all these things. 

These high doctrines in relation to the 
marriage state came to us in our contempla- 
tions many years ago, and were confirmed by 
the influences ready to communicate through 
the medium before referred to. Since then 
we have more than once reasoned upon the 
<% 140 >& 








* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

subject with communicating intelligences, and 
with mediums whose life-experiences had 
brought them to a recognition of the higher 
law. Thus, — while admitting that lower 
promptings, even to the lowest possible, have 
come from those in the spirit-world yet grov- 
elling in the mire of their old earth-life, call- 
ing for the apostle's injunction, verily " to 
try the spirits," — we claim that these higher 
laws have been developed in the minds of 
truth-seekers in modern things of the spirit, 
and have been pronounced through their me- 
diumship, by direct communication from 
their spirit-bands, and that such are now the 
accepted teachings among advanced spirits 
in the spheres above, as well as among those 
still in earth-life. Having studied the sub- 
ject in its various aspects, and with ever earn- 
est inquiry, since our first knowledge of these 
laws, we have found them in every way con- 
firmed as rational and true. 

We have thus spoken of some of the lead- 
ing points in which Spiritualism is bringing 
its testimony and doing its work in aid of 
human development. A comprehensive 
view discloses the relation of this modern 
movement of the spirit-spheres to the dispen- 
sations which have preceded it, and espe- 
* 141 g, 






<&nm 






* Gbe purity ant) Beetirt^ * 

cially its bearing upon the question of the 
Christ-coming, which is believed by so many 
Christians to be imminent at this time. 

That it is ushering in a new dispensation, 
wherein spiritual power shall uproot the false 
developments of the day, break up the arti- 
ficial systems — social, civil, and religious — 
by which man's higher nature is now fettered, 
and establish all the relations of life, all 
customs, institutions, and all philosophy, 
upon the firm basis of spiritual love and 
truth, is believed by most Spiritualists. Old 
creeds and dogmas wither before its fervent 
heat. Fermentation everywhere is trying the 
strength of old conditions, and bursting the 
bonds made up of falsehood and sham. 
But with all the seeming confusion there is 
underlying order, for the movement is sus- 
tained by the arm of the good Father, im- 
pelled and directed by his almighty will. It 
seems, indeed, the second Christ-coming; but 
not in the way expected by the Adventists, 
who, in their conception of a visible Messiah 
coming to judge the quick and the dead, are 
as mistaken as were the Jews of old in look- 
ing for a temporal kingdom under their ex- 
pected leader. Did not the Christ-man say 
that he should come like a thief in the night ? 
►5* 142 »ji 



* of HDobern Spiritualism * 

Has he not come now, with his myriad 
angels, trying and judging from behind the 
clouds which screen the mighty presence from 
the material sight of earth-life? He comes, 
not as a personal king to erect a personal 
kingdom, but to establish the Christ-princi- 
ple of divine love and truth in the minds and 
hearts of the children of men. God's king- 
dom is at hand, ushered in by the angels 
that know and do his will. 

We understand the operation of spirit 
power in these latter days to be twofold. 
There is a widespread, general quickening of 
all the conditions of earth-life, affecting the 
good and the bad, the developed and the un- 
developed, to activity beyond their usual 
state, — the Spirit of God moving over the 
deep ; and there is a special, direct influence 
exercised by different spirits or bands of spir- 
its upon individuals, according to the states 
in which they are found, — thus trying the 
condition of each and all, and quickening 
them to show their inner lives by deeds, and 
throw off, through sudden impulse often, the 
cloaks under which their real state has been 
concealed, perhaps even to themselves. In 
this way Spiritualism has sometimes seemed 
to encourage evil ways as well as good. 

* 143 * 



* £be purity anfc Destiny * 

Closer observation shows that the law of in- 
dividual responsibility is not to be broken. 
The very possibility of low conditions in the 
seeker after these things of the spirit opening 
the way to and attracting undeveloped spirits, 
who will be ready to encourage the low seek- 
ing, is only a call to every one now in earth- 
form to look closely within, and see to it that 
no evil conditions are lurking there, lest they 
be quickened to expression beyond the con- 
trol of their unhappy victim. The danger 
is equally great, if not greater, because un- 
perceived, though perhaps not so immediate, 
if we do not directly seek communion with 
the spirits ; for they are about us, whether 
we know it or not, watching every opportu- 
nity to reach and move us according to the 
tendencies they find in us. 

The movement of the spheres above has 
come now because man has reached a point 
in his development where he can and must 
rise to better understanding and higher views 
of the future, as well as of his present life. 
To help that struggle for development, 
Spiritualism suggests possibilities, not by way 
of coercion, but of inducement for him to 
come up higher. It is for him to receive the 
suggestions, weigh them carefully in the bal- 

* 144 ■ * 









of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

ance of truth, by which he must test every- 
thing, and to reject or strive to live up to 
them, according to his convictions. But let 
him see to it that low motives do not under- 
lie his own life, if he would distinguish the 
true from the false. " Blessed are the pure 
in heart, for they shall see God." Through 
the wisdom of the pure heart, man must find 
the truth of these latter days. " Try the 
spirits," was the injunction given long ago. 
It has momentous meaning now; but let us 
remember that we, also, are being tried by 
them, and see to it that our record will bear 
their keen scrutiny. Judging and being 
judged, they need our co-operation and help. 
They call us to join with them in the great 
work of redemption. 

The words of a recent inspirational speaker 
are apt in this connection : l " An impulsion 
sweeps toward the earth ; every heart is 
touched, every mind is delicately tried, every 
soul is attuned ; those who are ready are at 
once receptive. It is not simply that you 
receive it when you seek, but you cannot 
seek until there is some measure of truth 
within you. It is not simply that it is forced 
upon your brain and attention from the 

i Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond. 









* 



145 



* 






* £be purity an& Beating * 

spiritual world, but you are tried and tested 
whether you are in any degree ready, or 
whether you are in any degree capable of 
serving the advancement of this thought ; 
and the spirit-world know to whom they 
minister, — know to whom they bring the 
message of life ; and it is brought to you 
according to your need." 

To be true unto the truth, physically and 
spiritually, is the demand of the hour. He 
who fails in either will find out his weakness 
in the easy falling under temptation, and the 
lowering tone of his physical health, — ■ 
happy if he is not brought into dire straits 
of bodily disease, or led out to be a monu- 
ment of shame for his evil doings. It is 
more dangerous now for a man to come 
within the reach of temptation than it was 
thirty years ago, — there is such quickening 
of every element of his nature, causing the 
evil conditions to ferment and seek expres- 
sion as never before. 

Never was there a time in the world's 
history when there was so much need of the 
daily prayer, " Lead us not into temptation," 
The sunlight of God's love and truth is 
quickening all conditions with its kindling 
rays ; and as the great deep bubbles and 
* 146 * 




^yn^^r 



* of HDofcern Spiritualism * 

boils, impurities must need be brought to 
the surface, and at times seem almost to 
hopelessly" cover and conceal the purer ele- 
ments beneath. But love and truth will in 
the end prevail ; God's kingdom will come, 
and humanity rise purified from the fiery 
trial. 

Of Mediumship something should be 
said in this brief showing of the work, prog- 
ress, and outlook of Modern Spiritualism. 
To those who have given the subject but 
little attention, mediumship is looked upon as 
a kind of cataleptic state, worthy of little con- 
sideration and less sympathy ; the time hav- 
ing gone by when it was by the same persons 
deemed all trickery and deception. Closer 
observation shows that the world has never 
known greater occasion for kindly interest 
and helpful sympathy than is to be found in 
those who are called to the labor of aiding 
directly in the opening of this new dispensa- 
tion through the intercommunion of the 
spirit-spheres and humanity in earth-life. 
All are one on both sides of the veil of 
time, — members one of another ; the great 
family of man seems drawing together for 
such final occupation and enjoyment of earth 
and its attendant spheres as has been prom- 

* 147 * 



-:.'.,: v: 



* £be purity anfc Besting * 

ised for the ransomed through all the cen- 
turies. The time is at hand for parting the 
veil which has heretofore screened the spirit- 
land from the vision of dwellers upon earth. 
The work to which mediums are called — 
to be channels of demonstration and com- 
munication, preparing the way for the more 
open intercourse yet to come — is of momen- 
tous value. That some, perhaps many, 
have not themselves understood the char- 
acter of their calling, and so have failed to 
hold up the high standard of love and truth 
which would, at first thought, be expected 
of them, is to be attributed to the power of 
old conditions, out of which their spirits 
have not arisen; while yet they have been 
available for some phases of the work to be 
accomplished. Much may be said in exten- 
uation of the shortcomings of mediumship. 
That it is no light calling, has been too 
often proved in the labors and sufferings of 
its subjects. It has been, indeed, a heavy 
cross to bear ; not, however, without its 
crown, for it brings ever an underlying sense 
of happiness through all the suffering, with 
periods of exaltation hardly known without 
it. But none can know, who have not had 
the experience, what agony of spirit, and 
* 148 >j( 








* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 








sometimes acute physical pain, have been 
borne by persons of mediumistic develop- 
ment in their contact with and rough usage 
by conditions of earth-life wholly inapprecia- 
tive of their delicate organization and sensi- 
tive state. " Father, forgive them, for they 
know not what they do," has been wrung 
from the lips of many a martyr since they 
were first uttered by the great Sufferer ; but 
never more than in these days of modern 
mediumship. Surely these things ought to 
be and will be soon better understood, and 
the chosen laborers better cared for. 

All hail to the good time at hand, which 
is to usher in, through tribulation, purer, 
brighter, happier conditions for the children 
of men, — to be realized, in a measure, even 
by some of those who now tread the earth. 
But even with willingness of mind, it would, 
with rare exceptions, require more than one 
generation to overcome the power of inherit- 
ance and habit, so as to live fully up to the 
higher law in all things. There must be 
sincere conviction, and then long and patient 
striving, ere the goal can be reached. It 
can and will be attained, not by any startling 
operation of divine power, though the devel- 
opment may be comparatively rapid, after 

* 149 * 





^^esmUmuP^mm 



* Gbe ffmritp ant) Destiny * 

all these centuries of preparation. It must 
be by growth of the Christ principle in the 
human heart. The kingdom, God's king- 
dom, is coming through better men and 
better women; and these must be developed 
through better living, out of truer, holier 
birthrights than fall to the lot of most of 
earth's children now. 

Would that these words could reach the 
minds and hearts of all who remain stagnant 
in their old inherited conditions, too content 
with their spiritual riches to seek the wealth 
now offering to humanity through channels 
opened under the influences, though not all 
under the much-abused name, of modern 
Spiritualism ! Let them not be too sure of 
their position, or shut their eyes to their 
lack of spiritual gifts — and to the many 
manifest proofs that they have hardly yet 
begun to receive the knowledge of God 
given to the world eighteen centuries ago ! 
Again the voice of the Spirit cries out, 
"Woe unto you rich!" Woe unto you 
churches, that have builded costly monu- 
ments of faith and zeal, but for heavenly 
manna have gathered too much the lifeless 
chaff of creeds and dogmas, the empty husks 
of formal observance, with which to feed the 
>£ 150 t£ 



* of fll>o£>ern Spiritualism * 

hungry souls crying to you for bread ! 
Regenerating humanity will not much longer 
be held in bondage. Look to your treas- 
ures, and see that they bear the stamp of 
God's own imprint, lest ye perish through 
very poverty of spirit ; while every human 
home must become a house of prayer, and 
every fireside an altar to the living God. 









* 15 1 * 



* 



£be purity ant) Besting 



* 







ARTICLE V. 

Spiritualism a Searching Power. 

No escape from Judgment. — Spiritual perception 
not of the Intellect. — Guidance of the spirit 
possible for all. — It gives reality to spirit. — 
The Marriage Relation. — Joining of hands. — 
To spiritualize the natural, the need and work 
of the hour. 

The foregoing article offers a brief expo- 
sition of the work, progress, and outlook of 
Modern Spiritualism. Its necessary limits 
exclude much having important bearing up- 
on the meaning and value of the new con- 
ditions. 

Spiritualism, as there claimed, by its direct 
testimonies, throws light upon the path in 
which men have been groping, — makes 
clearer to their vision the impediments to 
their progress, — shows anew the truth and 
the life by which they can be brought to 
better development, and, in general, calls 

*2* 15 2 * 





* of fIDofcem Spiritualism * 








them to come up higher. It brings a power 
that tries all conditions. The companion- 
ships of earth-life try our hearts and minds, 
affecting their action in daily experience ; 
the influence of those about us, unseen by 
the natural eye, is trying our lives yet more, 
and in ways little realized, until some action 
declares our states. From their searching 
scrutiny there can be no concealment, and 
from the judgment of our inner selves, no 
escape ; while good angels would lead all 
men to be, in humbleness of spirit, children 
of God, whose love, whose wisdom, whose 
power, seem now ready to pour upon those 
who will receive, as never before vouchsafed. 
Through recognition of the spirit agency, 
both mind and heart are the more readily 
quickened. With deep desire and earnest 
prayer in heart and mind, the doors of the 
spirit may be opened, so that none but heav- 
enly visitors can enter. 

The subtle forces engaged in the manifes- 
tation of spiritual or supernatural phenomena, 
whether of high or low degree, have condi- 
tions peculiarly their own, and are subject 
to laws not fully understood as yet, but 
which are, nevertheless, as fixed as the laws 
regulating natural phenomena. In one re- 

* 153 * 





* 



£be purity anfc Stestin^ 










gard, however, there is a law common to the 
investigation of both natural and spiritual 
phenomena. It is true of science on the 
spiritual as on the natural plane, that no 
man can make original investigation unless 
his heart be filled with sincere love. Pure 
intellect can often follow up and seem to 
occupy the tracks of other minds which have 
preceded under the illumination of love ; but 
it cannot make sound, successful, original 
research under its own cold light alone. He 
who would find out God in things of the 
spirit must have the love of God in his heart. 
Doubtless, increasing knowledge of God in 
the mind quickens the heart's love and gives 
it direction, while it enlarges the sphere of 
its manifestation; but the love must be there 
to be quickened. The difference is wide be- 
tween the inquiry of the mind alone into the 
facts and philosophy of spiritual or super- 
natural phenomena, and the seeking of the 
heart after pure spirituality in things of the 
spirit. The two need to be combined for 
attainment of the broad science of Modern 
Spiritualism. 

Humble-mindedness is always an indis- 
pensable condition in this, as in every other 
inquiry into truth. The valley of humility 







* 



154 



* 



* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

lies ever before the mount of vision. The 
failure of many (so called) scientific inves- 
tigations into the ordinary, external phe- 
nomena of Spiritualism has been instructive 
on this point. Coming to the examination 
with little love in their hearts, and to their 
lack of love adding pride of intellect, such 
inquirers have been baffled, and refused ad- 
mission at the very outer gates of that portal 
which may open, according to the real desire 
of the seeker, up through the blessed angels 
to the very presence of God. 

The claim of Spiritualism, that a new dis- 
pensation is opening to earth-life through 
its manifold agencies, has awakened a desire 
in the minds of many, by whom the phenom- 
ena cannot yet be accepted as veritable, to 
know the supposed relation of the new con- 
ditions, if true, to their old faith. Allusion 
has been made heretofore to what seemed to 
be the general relation of Spiritualism to 
Christianity. A closer relation will be found 
in the development and operation of the 
spiritual perceptions under these modern in- 
fluences, which we would endeavor briefly to 
set forth. 

Realization of spirit presence through phy- 
sical manifestation — whether of the startling 

* J 55 * 





3K9 






* £be purity anfc Destiny * 

character of recent " materializations," or of 
the simpler kind — is not sufficient of it- 
self to meet the craving of the soul to reach 
up through the avenues of sense and liftings 
of the spirit till it can find the Father ; but 
it is an important remove from the ordinary 
material plane of life. The fact of being 
face to face with a spirit on the other side of 
the veil of time, once realized through per- 
sonal experience, breaks utterly and forever 
the spell of materiality, which has overgrown 
the spiritual perceptions of humanity, and 
made the average conception of spiritual 
things so vague and unsatisfactory. That 
spell once broken, the way is opened to 
earnest seekers for recognition of mental and 
spiritual impressions from invisible sources, 
leading to a development of the spiritual per- 
ceptions which will come gradually, and, with 
steadfast desire in the mind for the highest 
and best, will prove to be reliable and good. 
To have the spiritual perceptions thus 
developed is to realize far more than the pos- 
sibility and fact of spirit communing and in- 
tercourse. 1 1 is to have mind and heart opened 
to a recognition of spiritual elements and 
conditions, in a manner and to a degree that 
can hardly be understood, and certainly not 
* 156 * 





* of flfcofcern Spiritualism * 

enjoyed by those living wholly on the natural 
plane, however pure their lives, or even spir- 
itual their desires. It is the opening of a 
new sense, but with wider range than any and 
all the natural senses, and more exquisite in 
its varied enjoyments, by as much as things 
of the spirit are above things of the natural 
world. Spiritualizing the natural senses, each 
in their special direction, to perception of 
spiritual sights and sounds, to recognition of 
finer magnetisms in the touch of angel 
hands, to unwonted satisfaction and enjoy- 
ment in the elements of simple food, to the 
scent of richest fragrance from flowers of 
heaven, brought by loving friends, perhaps 
not visibly, — for such spiritual openings are 
not, as yet, always active together, — the de- 
velopment of spiritual perceptions leads to 
intelligent acquirement and realization of the 
various gifts of the spirit, of which the Chris- 
tian world has read so often and understands 
so little. In addition to these comes now 
the possibility of unfoldment and insight 
into all the spiritual elements underlying the 
whole natural world. 

Such experience leads yet further to a 
guidance within the spirit, which may thus, 
by a process of growth, learn to draw from 

* I 57 * 




* Zbc purity anfc Besting * 

the very depths of God's love and wisdom, 
through the manifold agencies of his appoint- 
ment, both on the natural and spiritual planes. 
Such guidance is not an after-recognition 
following experience, but an influence more 
or less present to the consciousness, and 
quickly responsive to the seeking of the spirit 
for right direction in every movement of 
thought, prompting and leading in every act. 
It calls for no mere passive state, inviting the 
mental faculties to listless inactivity. On 
the contrary, the more developed those facul- 
ties may be, the larger is the range of action 
for the guidance ; only they must be held in 
ever humble willingness to be led by the 
divine hand, while eager to do all their part 
in carrying out the promptings. The reason 
will not fail to throw its light upon any and 
every work to which man is called, and check 
the folly of blind impulse, while it waits 
upon the spiritual man to find what the work 
to do is. The more developed and active 
the reasoning powers, the more ready is the 
divine hand to help, when sought after in 
true humbleness. Said the voice in the old 
fable, " Put thy shoulder to the wheel ; then 
call on Jupiter, and he will help thee." But, 
while not requiring a mere passive state, the 

* 158 * 






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* of flfeofcern Spiritualism * 

spirit must be calm within, or it cannot per- 
ceive the promptings aright, nor hear the 
still, small voice correctly. The waters must 
be unruffled, if they would receive and reflect 
the heavenly images without distorted lines. 
Impatient zeal may be as great a hindrance 
as over-confidence in the intellectual faculties. 
Recognizing and grateful for the part which 
spirit agency takes in such direction, the 
earnest seeker will find the possibility and 
actual fulfilment of those words of the 
Psalmist, "He shall give his angels charge 
over thee, lest thou dash thy foot against a 
stone." He must not be discouraged if the 
impressions of such guidance come faintly at 
first. Most things which grow well grow 
slowly, and from small beginnings. Neither 
should he falter when the promptings lead to 
painful experience, except to question the 
sincerity of his purpose and the reasonable- 
ness of his conduct. If the asking has been 
true, the result will show that the guidance 
has been good in the lessons of life which 
were needed, and could come only through 
such teaching. Thus Spiritualism, by awak- 
ening and educating the spiritual perceptions, 
makes clearer and broader to this age of de- 
velopment the way by which, with earnest 

* 159 * 



* Zhe purity anfc Destiny * 

striving and patient waiting, humanity may 
rise higher and higher in spiritual attainment, 
co-working with God and the angels, until 
at last all its actions shall be outworkings of 
the Divine Spirit, and the promises of old be 
fulfilled. in the life of every child of earth. 

If the spiritual state thus to be attained 
appear the same as that considered in Chris- 
tian churches as the legitimate result of true 
Christian development, it follows that Spir- 
itualism is not antagonistic to Christianity. 
It is, indeed, its latter-day coadjutor ; and, 
while bringing the two-edged sword of truth, 
like Christianity, it comes to fulfil, not to 
destroy. To the minds of hasty observers, 
the work of Spiritualism has been a puzzle, 
if not an offence, in the varied character of 
its communications and teachings, as a whole, 
compared with the single purpose of spirit- 
ual unfoldment manifested in the Christian 
dispensation. But the way opened to one 
must need be opened to all the spirit-spheres, 
which thus bring the operative power of 
judgment to every condition of earth-life, 
and in a measure come # to judgment them- 
selves. Through all the various teachings 
and communication of things spiritual, how- 
ever, the higher angels have been and are 

>$i 160 %t 













* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

instilling and directly communicating lessons 
of wisdom and elements of divine love from 
the Christ-sphere, supported by such assur- 
ances as conditions have permitted, even to 
the surpassing sense of peace believed to be 
of the very Christ. Thus the promises of 
old are being fulfilled, though not in ways 
expected ; and, though men have hardly yet 
begun to live up to the truth that was and is 
in Christ Jesus, the angel-bands are bringing 
to earth-life new elements and ushering in a 
new era, which, in its outworkings, shall ful- 
fil a new and yet larger Messianic hope, to 
meet the spiritual needs of advancing human- 
e- 
Admitting gratefully the advantage of 

their starting-point, by birth and education 
in a Christian community, many Spiritualists 
have found it due to the truth to declare 
that they are directly indebted to Spir- 
itualism — beginning with the alphabet of 
physical manifestations, the rappings and 
table-tippings — for a new life, which is to 
their old life as light to darkness. The actu- 
ality of their own spirit — of spirit life as 
distinct from the natural life, and of spirit 
existence in the life to come, was so vague 
to their comprehension, before the light of 
$i 161 g< 




'W&$£^. 



* Gbe purity arto ©eetin^ * 

Modern Spiritualism dawned upon their 
minds, that they could get no real hold of 
any things of the spirit. " Our Father " 
was comparatively an " unknown God," 
whom they " worshipped ignorantly ; " and 
Jesus, a distant friend, whose life they could 
admire, but whose great love they could 
neither fully receive nor reciprocate. The 
truths of pure, unsectarian, gospel Christian- 
ity are, indeed, the foundation of all true 
life, by showing the Father and spiritualiz- 
ing the moral law in those commands, 
" Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy 
heart, and thy neighbor as thyself," on which 
" hang all the Law and the Prophets." 
Spiritualism, in its appointed time, comes to 
give a reality to spirit, which could hardly 
be known before, and helps the mind to a 
better understanding and the heart to a 
more living sense of God as spirit, who is to 
be "worshipped in spirit and in truth." 
Knowing that Spiritualism has come a helper 
to many, substantially in the manner de- 
scribed, we cannot but add our conviction 
that an honest admission would show to very 
many more a similar need, calling for simi- 
lar help, in these days when materialism has 
so overshadowed and imperceptibly grown 
>K 162 % 






* of fIDobern Spirituall0m * 

into the lives of all. It was hardly to be 
expected, indeed, that man could take such 
leaps in material development and make no 
discoveries on the spiritual side of his life. 
Such a one-sided strain could not long be 
borne ; the equilibrium of his being would 
be destroyed. Closing in the spiritual per- 
ceptions and stunting spiritual growth, the 
whirl of excitement on the material plane in 
modern times would have driven mankind 
mad, if some such additional help had not 
broken in from the skies to save them. 

With the spiritual perceptions opened, the 
most practical life becomes spiritualized, as 
every life should be. Spirit mediumship, as 
we have before intimated, according to its 
character and degree of sensitiveness, requires 
more or less relief from the ordinary pres- 
sure of practical duties, a certain setting 
apart for the special service ; but Spiritual- 
ism, in its simple opening of the spiritual 
perceptions, which is its normal work with all 
true seekers, will lead no man or woman 
away from the duties which practical life 
demands at their hands. Material interests 
have their divinely appointed laws, which 
must be obeyed, and which, under true guid- 
ance of the spirit, will not be ignored. 
* 163 £ 





m^\ 




* £be purity anfc Destin\> 

Spiritual development cannot contravene 
these laws, but only operate to give them 
their most beneficent expression. To the 
humblest laborers the divine guidance can 
come to lead and cheer them on, so that, in 
the most commonplace details, they may 
feel themselves to be co-workers with God. 
But, until the whole of humanity is opened 
to the new life, there must be struggle, and 
perhaps suffering, for those whose light 
shines upon darkness that " comprehendeth 
it not." Through all the weary centuries 
has this guidance been seeking to lead and 
help man in his struggles for development ; 
but it has failed of due recognition and ac- 
complishment, because the diviner elements 
of his being have been so covered over with 
the scales of ignorance on the one hand, or 
of intellectual conceit on the other, as to al- 
low only a partial approach of the manifold 
agencies of the ever-waiting spirit of God. 

Laboring to raise mankind out of the 
sloughs into which they have fallen through 
ignorance and indifference, the higher agen- 
cies of Spiritualism are not deterred from 
their work by false delicacy or artificial con- 
siderations. Viewing man in his twofold as- 
pect, — the spiritual and the natural, — they 
>j< 164 ►£ 
















* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

seek to make known what are the elements 
which have their life wholly on the natural 
plane of his being, and what on the spiritual, 
placing the spiritual always in the supremacy. 
Looking thus at the marriage relation, al- 
luded to in our previous article, right under- 
standing of which lies at the very foundation 
of social science, though to some minds it is 
almost a forbidden subject, it appears that 
on the natural plane marriage springs from 
the attraction of magnetisms ; and that far 
too often these are the controlling, if not the 
only, forces actuating human mating. These 
do give rise to emotions of love ; but such 
emotions, being from their origin wholly on 
the natural plane, are selfish, and, like all 
other selfish promptings, seek selfish gratifi- 
cation, leading to fruits of selfishness. In 
every true marriage there is spiritual love 
also, which may be known by its seeking the 
good of another rather than its own gratifi- 
cation, and by not being exhausted, but 
rather growing, through expression. Hu- 
man mating being comparatively free from 
natural limitations, the selfish promptings, 
which are equally strong in the natural man 
as in all other forms of life below him, must 
be held in restraint by the spiritual man. 
* 165 q*. 



* Zhe purity anfc Besting * 

Out of his freedom comes man's special 
responsibility, in this relation as in all others, 
of enlightened self-control, which must look 
to divine purpose for its direction and strength. 
Constrained by the higher love, the marriage 
relation is lifted to its proper plane ; and 
obedience to divine law, as shown in purpose, 
becomes both possible and easy. 

Such constraint is no mere asceticism. 
Sincere inquiry will make plain what the 
purpose and law are, and what are the ob- 
stacles to obedience, as well as the occasion 
for promulgation of these views in the 
present average state of the marriage re- 
lation : obedience in this regard being an in- 
dispensable step in the progress of humanity 
toward establishing spiritual supremacy in all 
the relations of life, — that essential basis of 
God's " kingdom on earth," for which the 
centuries have been praying that it come "as 
in heaven." It is due to Spiritualism that 
this call for higher life should be accredited 
to its influence and suggestion, in happy 
contrast with ideas which, at the opening of 
its work, have obtained a limited hold upon 
some of its more forth-putting believers, and 
left a temporary stain upon its fair name, 
that would not have been possible but for 
i% 166 ►£ 



* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

the weakness of old conditions thus brought 
to judgment. 

Marriage has been defined to be the effort 
of spirit to ultimate itself in form. It is 
plain that the quality of the ultimation must 
depend upon the character of the spirit in- 
volved, whether that be on the plane of 
pure, unselfish love, or on the lower plane 
of selfish gratification. Let true spiritual 
marriage underlie the natural mating, with 
the life on the natural plane directed by a 
holy desire to build up and sustain the body 
as a temple for the indwelling of a pure 
spirit, and the true intent of the marriage 
relation in earth-life will be wrought out in 
such lives, such homes, and such beautiful 
offspring as humanity are not often blessed 
with now. The subject is momentous, and 
demands the fullest consideration. Spirit- 
ualism proclaims in general that better social 
conditions are at hand, waiting only for man's 
willingness to welcome them. This cannot 
be until these grave matters are taken into 
the thoughts, and worked out in the lives 
of women and men. In the name of God, 
pure Spiritualism demands that the divine 
purpose in all the relations of life be sought 
and followed out. Co-working with God 
*t 167 % 









in 








* £be purity anfc Stestinip * 

and his agencies, it rests with man to help on 
the coming of his kingdom. 

In this connection we would allude briefly 
to the joining of hands at their gatherings, 
to which the attention of Spiritualists, as well 
as of outside observers, has been seriously 
called. The joining of hands on such occa- 
sions has sometimes proved to be more than 
the old conditions could bear, and selfishness 
has crept in to mar and prevent the other- 
wise harmonizing interchange of magnetic 
influence. Like the love-feasts of the early 
Christians, those meetings have tried the old 
conditions in the balance of spiritual intent, 
and too often found them wanting. The 
results are ground for argument against en- 
tering into such relations unguardedly, and 
do show the error of joining in promiscuous 
gatherings, where the motives of all present 
may not be equally sincere and unselfish ; 
but they furnish no reason for refusing to 
join in the seeking, where a sincere purpose 
is known to control. There ought to be no 
safer or better place for this joining of hands 
in spiritual seeking than in the home circle, j 
Try the spirits honestly, devoutly, reverently 
toward God, and there need be no fear of 
evil consequences, while the way may thus 

* 1 68 * 




i ^fZVC*®ti!S$r£ tal 




* of flfcofcern Spiritualism * 

be opened to the highest spiritual unfold- 
ment. 

The disposition of seekers in Modern 
Spiritualism to be contented with witnessing 
supernatural phenomena, without following 
up to the higher things of the spirit, was to 
be expected at first. By degrees, a larger 
and deeper interest has been and will doubt- 
less be yet more awakened ; while experience 
is showing that those words of the Apostle, 
" Though I have the gift of prophecy, and 
understand all mysteries and all knowledge, 
. . . and have not charity [love], I am 
nothing," are as true now as when they 
were spoken. To spiritualize the natural, 
as Jesus labored to spiritualize the moral, 
so that the divine spirit and uses which un- 
derlie all things in the natural shall have due 
recognition and full expression, is the work 
of Modern Spiritualism, — not to astonish 
by external wonders, or merely gratify curi- 
osity about the conditions of life in other 
spheres of existence. Heretofore, when spirit 
forces have drawn near to earth-life, the 
manifestations of their presence and power 
have seemed marvellous. As the work of 
development goes on, and harmonious rela- 
tions are established, with open communion 
t-B 169 £t 



mvmm 



mm 






m 













* ftbe purity anfc Destiny * 

and communication between the natural and 
the spiritual worlds, these manifestations will 
no longer be exceptional or in any sense 
strange. The call for signs and wonders 
will cease ; and humanity, drawing nearer to 
God, will move on, happy in fulfilling its 
varied part in the ever-repeating miracle of 
daily life. Such are the promises of the 
New Dispensation. 









>£ 170 * 







* of fIDctoern Spiritualism * 



ARTICLE VI. 

Unfoldment of the New Era. 

Method of procedure. — The new era one of spiritual 
opening. — Its quickening causes the turmoil of 
the times. — Inspiration better understood. — 
Causes retarding progress. — Foremost, ignorance 
and disobedience of Law in the marriage relation. 
— Too much selfishness, too little Love. — False 
shame. — ■ Errors in food. — Real needs of the 
physical. — Spiritualism a source of consolation 
to the afflicted. — Individuality its first require- 
ment. 

A New Dispensation ! These momen- 
tous words have been written under full 
conviction — based upon facts of external 
observation and inner experience — that this 
world of ours, after its long and weary cen- 
turies of preparation, is entering, has indeed 
entered, upon a new era of development ; 
something more than the growth which is 
always going on, — differing from what has 
gone before by discrete degree, though rest- 

*t 171 * 



Ktf 



* Zbe purity anfc Destiny * 

ing upon antecedent epochs as its necessary 
foundation. 

With all the recent rapid development on 
the material plane of earth-life, the new era 
is pre-eminently one of spiritual unfoldment. 
Modern Spiritualism cannot be said to con- 
stitute, or to embrace, the fulness of this 
dispensation ; it is rather the broad way 
through which the wonders and the glories 
of the new life are opening upon earth. 
How far the facts and experience on which 
this conviction rests can be shared by all, 
depends largely upon the receptiveness of 
each. As of old, men having eyes may not 
see, and ears may not hear, the signs of the 
times ; or hearing and seeing, they may not 
comprehend their import, though unable to 
find other satisfactory interpretation. 

The method of procedure has been in es- 
tablishing the basis on which the higher 
manifestations could rest, through the evi- 
dence given on the natural plane, of the 
actuality and nearness of spirit identities ex- 
isting and at work on the other side of the 
veil, — which veil is every day becoming less 
and less obstructive to communication be- 
tween the natural and the spirit spheres : 
and by the inspiration and very apparent 
* 172 










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* of flftofcern Spiritualism * 

quickening work of these spirit forces, which, 
whether recognized or not, are moving the 
world of humanity so potently now to new 
thought and action. History tells of other 
similar operations of the spirit-spheres upon 
earth-life ; but these have been less potent 
and extensive than now, when the prepara- 
tions are more complete, the conditions 
more ready to receive the great impulse, 
more ripe for development. No other view 
of our times furnishes rational explanation 
of the turmoil which, for many years, has 
prevailed over the face of our globe, through 
individual, social, and national experience, 
showing such universal quickening. Mod- 
ern Spiritualism furnishes a key to the mys- 
teries of modern life, on whatever side they 
may be examined, — the very forces of na- 
ture feeling the impulse, and startling hu- 
manity into inquiry of the whence and the 
whither, as never before. To some minds, 
alarmed by the apparent quickening of evil, 
the moral world seems to be hopelessly rush- 
ing to destruction in deeds of wickedness ; 
while others rejoice in the more than equal 
outgrowth of the better elements combining 
so manifestly to meet and overcome the 
rising evil. Such spiritual conflict found 

* 173 * 




* Gbe purity anfc Deetini? * 

vent in our own Civil War, with its manifold 
experiences, including the horrors of Ander- 
sonville prisons and the mercies of sani- 
tary commissions, — each and all working 
out and illustrating the purification through 
which men and nations have to pass before 
rising to the baptism of the new birth into a 
new and more blessed epoch. 

That such an event as the opening of a 
new era should come in the secret manner 
which has thus far characterized this spiritual 
epoch, is in accord with the law of all devel- 
opment, which is from within outward. In 
the secret chambers of earth, hidden from 
the light of the sun and the eye of man, the 
seeds of all growing things have ever been 
laid to germinate. Only in the higher coun- 
cils could the processes and times of the new 
unfoldment be known or anticipated. 

We have said that the new era is one pre- 
eminently of the spirit. External motives, 
having regard wholly to material ends, will 
give way to the higher motives of inner pur- 
pose and use. This idea has been pro- 
claimed by inspired teachers, and accepted 
by well-ordered minds, as the true rule of 
man's life, through all the centuries of his 
slow development. The time has come 
* 174 * 




* of flftofcern Spiritualism * 

when it must hold full sway, and mankind 
cease to be ruled by the things they now 
think to possess. Material development 
has been a necessary antecedent. The spiri- 
tual elements could find small opportunity 
for growth until the creature necessities of 
food, raiment, and dwelling place were pro- 
vided. Man's first efforts have been to 
procure these ; and easily has he become so 
absorbed in their acquirement as to measure 
the success of his life by the amount and 
character of such possessions. Development 
of power over material elements has been 
and is the aim of our education. With the 
child's mind so directed, the man could 
hardly fail to be absorbed in the pursuit, 
which is well as a means but not as an end. 
The new era is to be characterized by mate- 
rial development for its uses only. The 
larger the use, the higher the value of the 
possession. Radical inquiry into all the 
uses of life already marks the times, under 
the great quickening through spirit influence. 
Not that the spirit-spheres do all the labor, 
making the individual life of earth only ma- 
chine-work under their hands. Individuality 
is rather to grow more developed and pro- 
nounced, each human being feeling more 

* 175 * 






* £be purity anfc Destiny * 



*jL- 




and more the responsibility of filling his 
part in the economy of God's kingdom. 
Inspired by new thought and power from 
above, humanity will move on under the 
quickening impulse and the promptings of a 
great purpose, until raised to its proper plane 
of spiritual unfoldment. 

The testimony of Spiritualism upon the 
subject of Inspiration has been interesting 
and valuable, leading to more intelligent un- 
derstanding and a more rational philosophy 
of its operation than was possible to this 
materialistic age, or perhaps to any age, be- 
fore the advent of the full modern spiritual 
phenomena. We say testimony, for it is 
not inference or argument. The evidence 
offered, and the uniform declaration from 
the spirit-spheres, unite to establish the fact 
that God works through individualized agen- 
cies in the mysteries of inspiration, as in all 
the other works and ways wherein man finds 
manifestation of His presence and power. 
The difference between the inspiration from 
the spirit-spheres, and that which proceeds 
from the more apparent influences of earth- 
life, is one of degree rather than of method. 
The various forms of the latter are so fami- 
liar that they do not attract attention unless 
>K 176 ►£ 




of flfeofcern Spiritualiem * 

manifested in very striking ways or on great 
occasions, though wonderful in their simplest 
form. The power of one mind over many, 
through word, look, or act, the charm of 
oratory, the quickening flash of the eye, the 
high purpose of noble deeds, the mere pres- 
ence of a great man, — these all operate with 
inspiring influence. Well-spoken words are 
taken up and passed from mouth to mouth, 
carrying a power with every repetition, till 
the world rings with their inspiring sound. 
There is inspiration even from inanimate 
things, quickening every receptive life and 
prompting often to new thought and action. 
By a similar, but more direct and complete 
process, intelligences from the spirit-spheres 
inspire receptive minds with thoughts already 
fashioned, — sometimes putting the very 
words into the mouths of the mediums held 
in more or less unconscious trance ; or they 
quicken the receptive brain to its own fash- 
ioning of thought. Thus what has been 
accepted among men as divine inspiration, 
is shown and declared to have been given 
through individualized beings, angels of light 
and love, bringing heavenly truths from 
their heavenly homes to help and bless our 
mundane sphere. The familiar forms of 

* 177 # 

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* Zbe purity ant) Destiny * 

spirit-control for purposes of communica- 
tion, together with the manifestation of high 
inspirational powers in various forms of 
mediumship, have educated Spiritualists to 
accept this as the method of inspiration 
which, upon reflection, will be found to 
commend itself to the understanding, and 
to lead to a comprehensive philosophy of 
the whole subject ; though it does militate, 
at first painfully, against the preconceived 
ideas which have been handed down from 
generation to generation of earth's children ; 
children still, they are, in the hands of the 
All-Father, however enabled, through devel- 
opment, to comprehend more and more of 
his wondrous works and ways. 

In olden time, "Thus saith the Lord" 
were the familiar words used by persons 
touched by the fire from above. In later 
days, down to our own time, that which has 
seemed to be the " voice of God " has been 
heard within the inner consciousness of 
quickened minds. Such inspiration, whether 
of the past or the present, is one and the 
same in method. Angel-voices have spoken, 
and spirit-powers, high and low, have in- 
spired, since man's life on earth began. We 
know not, perhaps we can never know, just 
* 178 * 



* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

where the inspiration begins ; or draw the 
line between the thought generated by the 
action of our own minds, and thoughts in- 
stilled directly or indirectly from other 
spheres. We do know however that, of 
old and now, the character of the inspira- 
tion turns largely upon the development 
and motive of the person seeking and re- 
ceiving it. The voice of God, through his 
manifold agencies in the spirit-spheres, comes 
to man as inspiration ; and, through all these 
agencies, the selfish elements of the natural 
plane — which may still hang about the 
spirits who have gone out from visible earth- 
life steeped in those elements — are ever 
contending with the higher and more spir- 
itual for supremacy, — ever ready to offer 
their enticing promises of advantage and 
pleasure, even to the eating of the forbidden 
fruit of the " tree of knowledge of good and 
evil." 

These voices, this inspiration of the spirit, 
now as of old, must be brought to the bar 
of individual judgment for determination of 
their right or wrong, their wisdom or their 
folly. This may be done by direct consid- 
eration of the promptings or teachings ; or, 
as has been largely necessary in the course of 
* 179 




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* £be purity anb Besting * 

human development up to this period, by 
measuring the doctrine through the otherwise 
recognized merit of the medium or teacher, 
whose example and acknowledged develop- 
ment have given authority to his words. 
There is no escape from this responsibility 
of direct or indirect individual adjudication. 
Spiritualists know, and have shown by the 
outworking of their experience in this re- 
gard, — to their own misery often, as well as 
to the present disparagement of their cause, 
— how surely every spirit that comes to them, 
whether through their own consciousness, or 
voiced by others, must be " tried ; " how in- 
spiration in every form must be weighed in 
the balance of such truth as lies in each one 
of us. The closest self-questioning and 
weeding out of low motive have proved the 
first, if not the only safeguard against grave 
errors, which have been possible through 
willingness to close the mind to the warnings 
of the monitor within, sometimes against the 
plainest dictates of common-sense, when 
seemingly authoritative suggestions have come 
to encourage the doing of what would be 
pleasant, or in accord with our own thinking, 
rather than what would be independently right 
and wise. The unhappy Pocassett child- 




»jt 180 #4 



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of flDobern Spiritualism * 



slayer heard what seemed to him the voice 
of God, as did the assassin, Guiteau. Very 
possibly there were voices, promptings of the 
spirit, mingled with their own unbalanced 
thinkings. It is all one and the same meth- 
od of inspiration ; its source and special 
direction turning, in their cases, as in others 
of like character, upon their own mental and 
moral weakness and folly, — making them, 
personally, fit subjects for commiseration and 
restraint, while their deeds call for utter con- 
demnation. Such appears to have been, 
from the first, the method of divine working 
in this regard, leading by devious ways to 
the grand result of human development 
through experience. Acknowledged leaders, 
seers of their day, have in the past been lifted 
to the heights supreme, from which they 
could see and report the truths unfolded to 
their lofty aspirations. Modern Spiritualism 
would have all its children attain these heights, 
and live rejoicing on the plane of spiritual 
unfold ment which has been thus proclaimed, 
from the mountain-tops of human vision, to 
be the ultimate destiny of the race. 

The development which receives the 
highest inspiration is not necessarily based 
upon what has been heretofore considered 






Jfimi :.. 




* £be purity anfc Deetin^ * 

the highest culture; though culture, if true, 
is no bar, but rather an aid, to inspiration. 
"The pure in heart shall see God;" and 
this may or may not come of culture. Cul- 
ture has in the past tended to ruts and limits. 
Developing the mind in some directions, it 
has closed it in others, so that new light 
could hardly find entrance. The uneducated 
fishermen were called first ; and then the 
learned Paul was broken into the service. 
Again and again have things of the spirit 
been " hid from the wise and the prudent." 
With progressing development these con- 
ditions must change. The culture now 
opening to earth-life, largely through the 
inspiration and quickening from the spirit- 
spheres, is to be wider and truer than that 
of the past. The false, because wholly ex- 
ternal motive of life, will give way to a 
spiritual unfoldment and supremacy ; so that 
the more the culture, the better and more en- 
larged the channels of communication, the 
better and higher the inspiration from the 
influences, God's messengers, ever waiting 
to draw near to the children of earth, as the 
way opens for them and conditions attract 
them. 

It will be seen that this broad philosophy 
* 182 * 







* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

of inspiration includes within its scope all 
forms of divination from the earliest ages, 
many of which have been such stumbling- 
blocks to what has been claimed as the com- 
mon-sense of the materialistic age now 
drawing to its close. It reconciles the diffi- 
culties which have so often perplexed the 
studies of the scholar and theologian in this 
regard ; and — though it may not lead them 
to send embassies in hope of finding and re- 
viving the oracles of old, or to give too 
willing credence to the stories of divine re- 
sponse through angel, ghost, or sprite, so 
abundant in the past — it will surely help 
them to more correct estimate of what has 
so often been set down as ignorant credulity, 
and to find it no longer necessary to stultify 
the wise and good of past generations, in 
order to give any place to the statements of 
spiritual intervention in the affairs of men, 
handed down through history and myth. 

But with all the development of modern 
civilization, there is much wanting before 
man can receive the teachings of the inspira- 
tion now waiting to lead him up to the 
height of his great calling. Foremost among 
the causes which retard his progress and 
higher attainment is declared to be igno- 
* ' 183 $ 











* Zhe purity an& Besting * 

ranee and disobedience of divine law in the 
marriage relation, to the true culture of 
which we would again allude as lying at 
the foundation of social science. 

More and more the beautiful outworking 
or the terrible power of heredity are recog- 
nized among the most potent causes of 
man's weal or woe. There is a call yet 
more to recognize the power for good or 
evil in the birthright of every human being, 
which comes not of ancestral origin only, 
but is the direct result of true or false condi- 
tions in each particular parentage. Out of 
the heart are the issues of life ; and most 
assuredly out of the marriage relation, before 
aught else, spring the tendencies which de- 
termine the starting-point of every new-born 
life. This familiar thought demands such 
consideration now as it has never yet re- 
ceived, for the establishment of a basis in 
the coming development. There must be 
cultivated first a truer and more general 
desire for knowledge in this momentous 
regard. By degrees the wrongs may become 
more apparent of themselves, and be slowly 
eradicated through independent action of 
each sincere mind and willing heart. But 
conditions so established through ignorance 
* 184 qi 




* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 







and the predominance of selfish life on the 
natural plane, so long rooted in the broad 
field of humanity, must need be, in a mea- 
sure, forcibly ejected, before they can be 
planted out by the better life, under the 
knowledge brought through suffering ; and 
the sooner the work of removal is begun, 
the speedier will be the coming of the long- 
desired kingdom. Man's freedom to break 
the divine law indicated in purpose has given 
him opportunity to know, through experi- 
ence, the bitter fruits of disobedience. Let 
him cease now to make that freedom his 
poor excuse, and turn it rather into noble 
opportunity for willing obedience, by which 
alone he can become master of his lower 
nature, and in the highest sense a law unto 
himself, through perfect accord with the 
Good Father's will and purpose. As never 
before, angel messengers are pressing this 
momentous subject upon the minds of the 
men and women of to-day. Like the voice 
of God again sounding through the Garden, 
is the call summoning man to answer if he 
has been true in this most sacred relation. 
Shall shame, through past disobedience, still 
force him to hide from the Great Presence ? 
Let him, rather, penitently study the broken 
* 185 * 








* 



Zhc purity anfc Destiny 



* 



flSsHraR 



injunction, and, with the wisdom gathered 
out of suffering, humbly re-enter at the once 
flaming gates, — through his obedience no 
longer a barrier, — and seek to attain that 
felicity, handed down among all peoples and 
from all time since he became a sojourner 
upon earth, as his true birthright. Paradise 
gained or regained, it matters not, if only its 
blessed possibility be reached ! 

It is interesting to observe how, through 
predominance of the natural or selfish love, 
comes the sense of possession, which actuates 
all mating among the . lower animals, and 
shows itself in man through the passion 
of jealousy. This is plainly for the protec- 
tion and welfare of animal life on the natural 
plane ; but for man is needed only so long 
as his life is ordered on that plane. When 
human life is raised to its spiritual standard, 
so that men and women, through subjection 
of the natural to the spiritual love, can rule 
themselves, the need of this selfish element, 
this sense of possession in love, disappears. 
The marriage relation, entered into with 
consentient attraction and impulse on both 
the natural and spiritual planes, — which in- 
crease in power with true use and wise ex- 
perience, — becomes a durable bond that 
* 186 gi 







,.,.---... ■ 






of flDobern Spiritualism * 

needs no such jealous protection. The 
selfish sense of possession gives place to a 
proper sense of belonging that leaves no 
opportunity for doubt, and would afford no 
encouragement to selfish approaches from 
without. Love between men and women, 
thus held in the service of God, is free for 
other and wide expression, not limited to 
the mated relation, which will help to keep 
that relation fresh and strong in its own 
proper bounds, instead of being dragged out 
in selfish confinement — leading to indiffer- 
ence, if not repulsion, as it too often now is. 
The sacred injunction, Love one another, no 
longer restrained by fear of selfish misrule, 
would be followed in all the social relations 
with such beautiful adaptations and healthful 
results, on both the natural and spiritual 
planes, as has been possible only in excep- 
tional instances during these eighteen hun- 
dred years of slow development of the 
Christ ideal. In such way has the true 
gospel of Modern Spiritualism come to ful- 
fil, not to destroy. That this individual 
ruling of the life, through supremacy of the 
spiritual love, has no conflict with human 
law is readily seen. When the marriage re- 
lation is thus conducted the statutes regu- 
* 187 % 



* £be purity anfc Destiny * 







lating it will be no impediment, and the laws 
of divorce will happily become dead-letter 
laws ; as those against theft and murder are 
dead letters to all whose lives are up to the 
Christian standard of love to God and man. 
The evil to be overcome, being deep- 
seated, demands radical treatment. The 
work of prevention must begin with the 
young. Children must be educated to ac- 
cept natural things naturally, and ever with 
the pure spirit to which all things are pure. 
The ideas of false shame, now so generally 
inculcated, must give place to a desire for 
holiness before God and man. Let them be 
taught to look upon clothes no longer as the 
covering of nakedness and shame, but rather 
as climatic necessities, and protection from 
injury and unwholesome approaches, — while 
still calling for proper interest in appearance, 
to make that pleasant as may be to others. 
Indifference to the decencies of life is not 
involved in such idea of dress. Taught 
that the body is but the clothing of the 
spirit, let children learn to cherish it with re- 
ligious desire for its best development and 
the highest and best use of its powers ; and 
in turn to care for the clothing of the body, 
with the desire foremost to accommodate it 






* 



* 



* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 






to its chief uses. Before God, and in the 
eye of the pure spirit, there is no such con- 
dition as nakedness, in the low sense sug- 
gested in false shame, resulting from false 
education and false living. 

By the removal of false shame through 
right education, so that all natural relations 
shall be looked upon with the purity of mind 
that knows not shame, and with the subjec- 
tion of the natural to the spiritual love 
through proper culture of both, most mo- 
mentous ends will be accomplished. Evils 
which are now the despair of the wisest 
philanthropy will find their only effective 
prevention, and coming generations will 
everywhere rise up to call their parents 
blessed. 

Among the obstacles to attaining the new 
life, spirit messengers allude often to errors 
in food. This leads to the general subject 
of appetite. Given to the animal kingdom 
for the purpose of keeping up the life of the 
body, and continuing the races to their ap- 
pointed uses and ends, the appetites of the 
flesh have ascended to man, through his re- 
lation to that kingdom, and in the state to 
which they had been developed prior to his 
life upon earth. In these appetites, as in 
* 189 % 






* £be purity anfc Destiny * 

other respects, the comparative anatomy of 
body and spirit, through the animal races, 
leads up to man. Among the brute animals, 
to whom is given no power from generation 
to generation of improving their natural 
states, — though all the while they have been 
elaborating the elements of earth through 
their several organisms, each after their kind, 
— the appetites are restrained by fixed con- 
ditions. But for man, called to a higher 
destiny, these natural restraints are removed, 
his range for possible indulgence of appetite 
being almost without limit. Uniting in his 
organism, physically and spiritually, all the 
elements of earth-life, man, the microcosm, 
is gifted with power, and therewith called to 
subdue these elements, and in his turn to 
raise them in their various forms to their 
highest development. As he finds himself 
opposed by the forces of nature in subduing 
the surface of the earth, whence has come, 
through difficulty and struggle, much of his 
present external progress, so in his corre- 
sponding labor to subdue, develop, and ele- 
vate the creature elements, — handed up to 
him through the whole animal kingdom, to 
be perfected in his body and spirit, — he 
must meet and overcome difficulty and op- 



* 



190 





* of fIDobern Spiritualism * 

position before he can attain " the prize of 
his high calling." Thus in man's own being 
at last, would seem to be centred the " con- 
flict of the ages," begun in the war of ele- 
ments, when form first sprang out of chaos, 
and to be ended only when his destiny is 
fulfilled. Having divine uses, the appetites 
of the flesh — in their natural condition, and 
legitimate development through the animal 
kingdom — are good, though selfish. In 
man they are good, and in their action 
crowned with a proper joy, so long as they 
are held by the divine principle within him 
to true uses and ends. But when perverted 
from their true uses and allowed unrestrained 
indulgence, — made possible through the 
free agency, without which he would not be 
in the image of God, — these appetites fall 
into states of hell, and carry with them the 
victims of their power. 

Much, then, must depend upon the right 
selection of food, as well as upon its temper- 
ate use. That the human race will in the 
coming time find all its food in the grains, 
fruits, and herbs, is not questioned. Many 
facts of to-day point to this end. It is true 
that the fibrin of animal flesh is found 
chemically to be the gluten of the grains ; 
>i« - 191 ►!-< 




* £be purity anfc Besting * 

but the gluten is raised one step in the pro- 
gress of being by passing into the animal 
life, and so attains a quickening, heating, 
febrile power in flesh meat, which tends to 
over-stimulate and corrupt man's true health, 
however much habit and his present average 
development seem to demand, and perhaps 
for a time longer really do need it. Again, 
argument has been drawn in favor of animal 
food from the constitution of man's body, 
and especially from his teeth. It is claimed 
that his canine teeth indicate capacity for, 
and so need of, animal food; but here, again, 
ultimate purpose, on which rests the law of 
the new life, is shown in the canine being 
more than matched by the other teeth and 
the whole set together upon an even line, re- 
quiring a harmonious use for them all. Can 
this use be fulfilled by eating meat ? The 
grains and the fruits, in their natural states 
as prepared by man, call into exercise all the 
teeth, including the canine, but they do not 
tend to encourage and keep in its natural 
qualities the canine element, as the feeding 
on flesh meat, the natural canine food, must. 
Taken as it is, the canine race can hardly 
live without its natural food, as indicated by 
its teeth ; but the canine element, as it exists 








* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

in man, can be sufficiently fed without flesh 
meat. It is in man — as including all crea- 
ture elements below him — that the possi- 
bilities of the lion eating grass, and the wolf 
lying down with the lamb, may be fulfilled ; 
while the original creatures themselves must 
disappear from the face of the earth, their 
work accomplished. " Paradise Regained " 
will be satisfied with that primitive provision, 
whatever its source, " Behold, I have given 
you every herb bearing seed which is upon 
the face of all the earth, and every tree in 
the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; 
to you it shall be for meat ; and to every 
beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air 
and to every thing that creepeth upon the 
earth, wherein there is life, I have given every 
green herb for meat." Already a suggestion 
of the coming time in this regard may be 
found in the difference of feeling with which 
refining humanity can pluck an ear of corn 
and thank God for it, while it would shrink 
with abhorrence from plunging the knife 
into the living creature, whose flesh it still 
craves and for a while may yet require. 

A more interesting topic perhaps to the 
general reader, and one of importance to 

1 Genesis i. 29, 30. 




B^sv»%$^;«l^ 




* £be purity anfc Destiny * 

those who have known nothing of Spiritual- 
ism other than little-credited reports of its 
phenomena, is the source of consolation, 
real and available to all, opened through its 
simplest manifestations. The aspect of death 
is so changed through their acceptance, so 
robbed of its terror, made so beautiful in the 
absolute assurance of the new birth, — not 
into a Plutonic kingdom of night, nor into 
a far-off region of light whence no message 
of love can return, but into a nearer realm 
of spirit-life, to which the avenues of ap- 
proach and communication are no longer 
closed. The consolations of religious trust 
are much and many ; but they cannot fill the 
void in the aching heart as can one word — 
nay, one tiny rap — that assures of the near 
presence of the loved and seemingly lost. 
Not that any form of spirit manifestation 
can wholly fill up the void caused by death, 
or fully replace the magnetisms of the bodily 
presence, the living elements of physical life 
which are removed when the spirit puts off its 
earthly habiliment ; but to the cry so often 
going out, " Give me one word, one touch, 
one look " from the dear departed child, par- 
ent, brother, friend, Spiritualism does offer a 
consoling response such as can come in no 

* 194 * 







* of flfcofcern Spiritualism 

other way ; and it is as legitimate to find 
this comfort from the sources now opened 
as it is to avail of any of the alleviations of 
human suffering which the development of 
knowledge has brought, or — with the good 
Father's blessing and help — will yet be 
discovered for the ills of earth, ere they are 
removed through the better conditions now 
at hand and promised. 

In closing we would once more touch 
upon the subject of Individuality, that there 
may be no misapprehension of what has 
been written of the continued influence ex- 
ercised over human lives by the spirit- 
spheres. Real as that influence is, yet there 
is no escape from the responsibility of every 
child of earth to see to it that his life is well 
ordered out of the purpose of his own will 
and thought. Led, as he may be unawares, 
to lines of conduct not of his original seek- 
ing, the responsibility is to hold his purpose 
of well-doing without swerving, and leave 
the shaping of his life in such measure to 
circumstances and the unseen influences, in 
connection with his own desire and purpose, 
as may be allotted to him. 

" There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
Rough-hew them how we will," 







* Zhe purity anfc Destiny * 







and these unseen influences have much to 
do in the shaping ; but never should man or 
woman let the reins slip from their hands so 
far as to lose the power of determining 
between right and wrong, under the best 
culture of conscience which they can attain, 
and of restaining every prompting and 
impulse that is not in accord with their 
highest sense of right. To be passive and 
receptive to all that is good, but positive and 
repellant to all that is wrong, is the plain 
and safe rule of conduct. Spiritualism shows 
that the advantage of such self-direction and 
control goes out and beyond to others, in 
ways and to an extent little dreamed of 
by those unacquainted with these modern 
proofs of spirit presence. Indeed, none of 
us can know fully the power of our lives to 
help the benighted on those other shores, — 
who are waiting to be led out of blind con- 
ditions, consequent upon their own life-ex- 
periences, — by the influence of our conduct 
and lives, which is ever operating in turn to 
help or to hinder the " cloud of witnesses " 
about us. " Spirits in prison " there are on 
that other side, waiting for the resurrection of 
our spirits — yet in earth-life — from low de- 
sires and external seekings, which are holding 
* 196 K 









* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

us and them in continuing bondage to things 
of sense, when they and we should be free in 
the service of the Good Father. The power 
of example and influence is recognized in 
earth-life, and is momentous for that alone ; 
but how much more momentous when this 
wider area of possible influence is contem- 
plated ! Surely, if other motive were want- 
ing, here is inducement enough to raise the 
dying and the dead in spirit out of their low 
conditions, their living sepulchres, to the new 
life in the new era now opening. 



mm®, 






* 197 * 






* 



* 







THE PURITY AND DESTINY OF 
MODERN SPIRITUALISM. 



ftbirfc Series* 




* 











* * 






"Isfs Gottes Werk, so wird's bestehen — 
Isfs Mencken Werk, wird's untergehen" 



Is it God's Work, so shall it stand — 
Is it Man's Work, it will go under. 



Inscription on the statue of Martin Luther at Wittenberg. 



* 






* * 



THIRD SERIES. 
1899. 



PREFATORY NOTE. 

To state the present aspect of Modern 
Spiritualism, as seen by the writer ; — to 
show some of the inconsistencies of unbe- 
lief, remove some of its obstacles, and ex- 
plain more fully the necessity of its phe- 
nomenal presentation, culminating in Ma- 
terialization ; — to state more forcibly the 
power it has exercised and is still destined to 
exert, through its various channels, upon 
earth life in every grade, the recognition of 
which seems so needful for reception of the 
sympathy and aid it has to offer, as well as 
to meet successfully the threatening ap- 
proaches of its lower orders and elements ; — 
and last, but not least, to declare in a more 
distinct and emphatic manner, the true rela- 
tions between man and woman, which have 
►B 201 g, 





* ftbe purity anb Destiny * 

been shown to the writer as the very foun- 
dation of social science ; — the following three 
Articles have been added. They complete, 
in a measure, the scheme of treatment which 
seems to have been laid out from the first. 

The writer is well aware that the claim of 
influence on the part of the spirit-spheres, 
herein made, can hardly be accepted at once, 
or without some inquiry into the phenomena 
in their very varied presentation. With the 
hope of arousing a new and enlightened in- 
terest in such inquiry, he has endeavored to 
present something of its many and varied 
aspects. How far short he has come of 
covering the whole ground, as it may be 
covered later by some more able hand, he is 
fully conscious. 




202 







* of HDofcern Spiritualism * 



cW:,- 




ARTICLE VII. 

Spiritualism a New Science. 

Demonology, what is it ? — Obstacles to inquiry and 
belief. — Inconsistencies of opponents. — Neces- 
sity of external phenomena. — Materialization 
described at length. — Exclusion of sunlight a 
necessity, — why. — Plainer manifestations to re- 
sult from better conditions of inquiry. — Means 
, to a greater end. — Mistaken opposition. — The 
First Spiritual Temple. — Continuing Inspiration 
from highest sources 'to be cultivated. 

Perhaps the word, " Demonology," for a 
caption would, better suit the mental state 
of many readers of an article on Modern 
Spiritualism, and it might be a correct term, 
if the original signification of the word, 
" demon," were not so nearly obsolete ; its 
current meaning being limited to bad or 
undeveloped spirits, instead of including the 
whole range of spirit beings, good, bad and 
indifferent. Webster's first definition of the 




* Gbe puritp anfc Beating * 

word " demon," is : "A spirit or immaterial 
being holding a middle place between men 
and the celestial deities of the pagans." 
This was its original meaning. Such, doubt- 
less, was the " daimon " of Socrates, as un- 
derstood by his contemporaries. But the 
secondary and now popular meaning of 
demon has long been limited to " evil spirit." 
A pocket Worcester's dictionary gives for 
its only meaning, " an evil spirit, a devil ; " 
and " Demonology " has in general been so 
appropriated by " the devil and his angels," 
that the very sound of the word has grown 
to be an offence to polite ears. By easy as- 
sociation these words have included, in the 
popular mind, all spirits who could control 
human beings, and demoniacal possession has 
been recognized as one of the factors in 
human conduct, when the equally possible 
influence or control of good spirits had, be- 
fore the advent of Modern Spiritualism, 
come to be quite ignored. Among the ob- 
stacles to acceptance of the facts of Spiritu- 
alism, not the least has been this secondary 
meaning and use of the words " demon " 
and " demonology," by operating to discredit 
the claims of Spiritualists that good was to 
be found in the varied spiritual manifesta- 
* 204 % 










* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

tions, and so leading to refusal of the whole 
phenomena. Indeed it would sometimes 
seem that if the early advocates of the new 
spiritual truths, in their endeavors to draw 
the attention of the religious world to the 
facts, had confined themselves to statements 
concerning the manifestations of the lower 
orders ot spirits, they would have gathered 
more speedily a goodly company of inquirers, 
who would have been prompt to do God 
service by meeting and battling with the old 
enemy of man, and so might have unex- 
pectedly found themselves encompassed 
about by angels of light, marshalled at the 
bidding of the Lord of Hosts to do his will 
in the work of uplifting humanity ! 

But these fifty or more years since the first 
announcement of the new conditions, through 
tiny raps in the little village of Hydesville, 
have shown such astounding growth and pro- 
gress of the new philosophy, that its disciples 
have ceased, in great measure, the eager 
advocacy of its doctrines which was so 
natural at its advent ; well assured from the 
progress attained, that a power higher and 
mightier than any ordinary human organiza- 
tion has been and is behind the movement, 
and will in good time bring it to fruition in 
* 205 % 










* Gbe purity anfc 2>e6tin$ * 

the long promised kingdom of righteousness 
and peace. If the coming be "like a thief 
in the night," it may be welcomed yet the 
more as led on in mysterious ways by the 
Master hand, which so many now in the fold 
believe has been directing its approach from 
the beginning. 

No one cause has tended more to impede 
a proper understanding and easy acceptance 
of Modern Spiritualism for the unbeliever, 
than the general desire for a spiritual pre- 
sentation of the subject, when the age in which 
we live has made what may be called the 
natural presentation its only avenue of ap- 
proach. This is no contradiction of ideas, 
though it may at first seem so in terms. By 
force of the material and intellectual develop- 
ment of the last few centuries, the human 
mind, before the advent of Spiritualism, had 
been reduced to a state of infancy as to the 
power of spiritual discernment, recognized as 
one of the gifts of the Spirit eighteen hundred 
and more years ago, so that it could only 
begin to be informed in that direction in a 
manner similar to that by which the human 
infant has to begin the awakening or acquire- 
ment of all its ideas, namely through the 
external senses. For most inquirers at the 

>£* 206 t£ 







w%w< 




$%mm~ 






of fIDofcern Spiritualism 



* 



outset, any attempt at a spiritual presentation 
of Spiritualism has been practically useless, 
and must continue so, more or less, until a 
wider breach has been made in the walls of 
spiritual unbelief; and this breach is to be 
effected first and easiest through the avenue of 
the senses. Leaders in spiritual things of to- 
day offer no exception to this necessity, any 
more than they did eighteen or more centuries 
ago. Spirit life, like external or natural life, 
has its order of being and manifestation, its 
causes and effects, now beginning to be under- 
stood as a philosophy before little compre- 
hended. Simple physical manifestations, with 
responsive intelligence, leading up gradually 
to the more recent full form materializations, 
have been the first method for all. From the 
necessity of the situation, then, any candid 
presentation of the subject in what may be 
called its natural, rather than its spiritual 
aspect is, at the outset of inquiry, entitled 
at least to patient consideration. 

Another difficulty in the approach of 
Spiritualism, and not a slight one, has been 
the fact with which the inquirer is early con- 
fronted, that the " communion of saints," so 
long established as one of the tenets of the 
Christian church, has its foundation in natural 
* 207 g. 



..-■M' 









* Gbe purity ant) Besting * 

. 

law ; and that while taking its special direc- 
tion from spiritual culture, it is possible only 
by virtue of the fundamental fact through 
which, in these latter days, the way has 
been opened to all denizens of the spirit- 
spheres ; showing, sometimes so sadly, that 
all who are ready to commune from the 
other side of the veil of time are not saints, 
any more than those on this side of the 
veil who have sought the communion. 

Never has the power of education and 
habit in fixing mental action in grooves been 
more markedly illustrated than in the posi- 
tion of negation toward Spiritualism held 
by many who are nevertheless assured of 
and ready to avow their belief in the near 
presence and very possible influence of loved 
ones gone before. Welcoming the poetic 
strains that tell of such near presence, and 
reciting them often with spiritual fervor, 
their minds still shrink strangely from any 
possibility of the poetic fancies being changed 
into real presence manifest to the external 
senses, though plainly such external mani- 
festation is the only avenue of near approach 
available, when the gift of discerning 
spirits is so utterly lost and well nigh ridi- 
culed by the heads of the Christian church, 

£i 208 ►£. 








* of flDobern Spiritualism * 

though half believed in as something possi- 
ble two thousand years ago. It is strange, 
indeed, that so many of the more educated 
classes should be unable to perceive that this 
closing of the spiritual vision precludes the 
possibility of the spirit communing they 
vaguely desire as something which they could 
accept; while they repel the manifestations 
upon the natural or sensual plane, on which 
alone they are now capable of recognizing 
the spirit presence. 

Again the more cultured classes, as a 
whole, are open to the charge of utter incon- 
sistency in their shrinking from what seems 
to them at first as desecration of their loved 
dead, in the apparent necessity of finding the 
avenues of communication open to them 
only through strangers and in strange places. 
The moment a suggestion is made that they 
need not go so far for the communing, if 
only they would open their own hearts and 
homes to the conditions necessary everywhere 
for development of spirit mediumship, they 
are quick to resent the proposal as almost an 
insult ; thus directly repelling, with their 
utmost force of will, the very possibility of 
having communication opened anywhere but 
in places strange to them ! Possibly it has not 
►i< 209 ►$< 








Zbe purity ant) Besting 

occurred to them that the spirit friends them- 
selves, longing for direct interchange of love 
and thought with dear ones left behind, sub- 
mit to conditions not of their own choosing; 
nay more, are often forced to avail of states 
otherwise repulsive to them, in order to get 
into any avenue of approach ; a pain and 
struggle they might well be saved, if only 
the home circle, within its consecrated cham- 
ber, could be established under every roof. 
They too would shrink from the strange con- 
tacts, often unavoidable in the ordinary 
seance rooms, as repugnant to their own re- 
finement as to the most delicate sense of the 
friends in the form. Happily there are 
public mediums whose personal purity and 
and conduct would of themselves be no im- 
pediment to the coming of any one from the 
spirit-spheres, and the number of these 
doubtless will increase ; but the mixed com- 
pany of strangers must too often include 
elements at least inharmonious with the 
tender emotions which are called out upon 
a loving message, or it may be upon the open 
vision and substantial presence of a dear de- 
parted form. Many good people who still 
deny the privilege of such communing in 
any manner to themselves and their spirit 

gl 2IO % 









* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

friends, and are often ready enough, had they 
the power, to prevent all others from the 
privilege, will be astonished at their error, as 
countless other tardy acceptors of the new 
truths have been, when their eyes are opened, 
and the new light has fairly dawned upon 
them. 

But not without some effort, and it may be 
sacrifice, is the inquiry into these mysteries, 
as into any other truth to be instituted. The 
votaries of old science are not to be waited 
upon, as so many of them have been prone 
to think, by the powers directing the great 
movement from the spirit-spheres. They, 
too, must come upon their knees in the sim- 
plicity of a childlike, though never childish 
willingness to be taught whatever they may 
be found fit to receive, as the early votaries 
of Spiritualism have done ; and perhaps in 
time learn that what they have heretofore re- 
fused to accept, because seemingly contrary 
to established truth, is not in fact contrary 
to, but something beyond and in addition to 
their former knowledge. The laws of gra- 
vitation, for instance, are not changed or 
contravened in the new manifestations of 
external force ; but new powers are intro- 
duced not hitherto known or recognized as 
>b 211 iji 




j&Sw 






* Gbe purity an& Destiny * 

factors in the great problem of mundane de- 
velopment. There is a science of these 
new forces to be wrought out, having been 
already partially developed, which will stand 
on yet firmer grounds of reason and demon- 
stration than much of the boasted learning, 
which is now so often only an impediment 
to progress. Not in unkindness be it said 
to the votaries of old science, but with earn- 
est desire to help them over the first stum- 
bling-block of incredulity, "You are right in 
holding that nature's laws are not to be 
broken ; but you are utterly wrong in as- 
suming that there may not be laws of which 
you have no knowledge now, that suspend 
the action of the laws you do know." The 
words of an inspirational lecturer are apt in 
this connection. " Consider what your 
world has experienced in the intellectual de- 
velopment of mankind. Here in your at- 
mosphere was held in reserve a power which 
you call electricity : for centuries it was unu- 
tilized, and you knew little of it : but now 
it is becoming one of your elements of 
power. In this element you have an illus- 
tration of the elements still beyond your 
conception, that have escaped your intellec- 
tual powers. It is unreasonable to suppose 




* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

that you have exhausted nature's resources, 
or that in the future you will not discern 
many forces of which you now have no 
knowledge, which shall be applied to man's 
uses and for the benefit of the whole hu- 
man race." 

Interesting illustration of newly develop- 
ing forces is found in the materialization of 
spirit forms and the accompanying phenom- 
ena, which those within the inner circles have 
watched with hope of further development, 
while outside observers are still contending, 
sometimes so bitterly, about the possibility 
of such manifestations ; unable yet to clear 
away their old stumbling-block of unbelief. 
The story briefly told eighteen hundred or 
more years ago, when the blessed powers of 
spiritual healing were refused their benign 
work " because of unbelief," so that he, the 
Master, " could do none of his wonderful 
works," is again repeated. Argument avails 
little to remove the obstacle. Nothing but 
the slow, hard logic of facts can overcome it, 
and gradually these facts are gathering with 
increasing potency. It is not that these facts 
are to be received without examination : no 
severer scrutiny has been instituted than by 
many who have outgrown their scepticism ; 
* 213 %, 










w 




* Zbe purity anfc Etestini? * 



but that they should be approached with 
willingness to receive when proved, no mat- 
ter what points of old theology or accepted 
science may seem to be opposed. The old 
axioms of science are not contravened, but 
only the laws of external nature superseded, 
for the time, by the new forces of what for 
this purpose may be styled internal nature. 
Thus it has been demonstrated that Nature 
is all one, though the finer elements or forces 
are not cognizable to external observation, 
while they are everywhere underlying the or- 
dinarily recognized material universe. Mat- 
ter without — spirit within — and all in 
Nature, which includes the whole grand pri- 
mary manifestation of the Supreme Being to 
man's comprehension. 

The power to repel spirit manifestations, 
which is often unconsciously exercised by 
unwilling or incredulous minds, has been 
shown over and over again to observers of 
the phenomena. A marked illustration of 
this power was given at a materializing 
seance, in the difference between the writer's 
experience and that of a friend at his side, 
who could not refrain from continually ques- 
tioning and doubting, though really desirous 
of attaining some convincing proof. At the 

214 * 






■ v v 



* of £fl>ofcern Spiritualism * 

outset of these full form materializations a 
cabinet has been necessarily used for the 
purpose of isolating the medium, for the 
time being, from the approach of unfavor- 
able conditions, as well as for exclusion of 
sunlight ; the process of materialization, like 
many of nature's processes, requiring seclu- 
sion from light at the start. On the occa- 
sion to which we refer, the cabinet was a 
small room, perhaps six by eight feet in di- 
mensions, and satisfactorily closed against en- 
trance or exit by any other than the one small 
doorway, over which was hung a curtain. 
The spirit forms taking visible and tangible 
materiality from the elements of the physi- 
cal body of the medium, who was reclining 
in unconscious trance within the little room, 
presented themselves at the small doorway, 
drawing apart the curtains with their own 
hands, and indicating by pointing as well as 
by calling of names, the person from the 
seance circle with whom they wished to com- 
municate. Our friend was thus called up, 
but to be disappointed in getting any satisfac- 
tory evidences of identity, either through the 
face or form which were tangible, though in- 
distinctly visible, or through any names given 
or other words spoken. Very shortly after- 
* 215 * 






Wm 




* Gbe purity anfc Destiny * 

ward the writer was called to the curtained 
doorway to be greeted by a figure taller than 
the medium, and giving the name of a dear 
relative who had passed to spirit life some 
forty-five years before. The features were 
plainly visible, and the lips substantial 
enough to impress a veritable kiss. Upon 
our inquiry whether another near relative was 
present, who had passed away more recently, 
the reply came distinctly, "Yes, wait a mo- 
ment and I will bring her out to you." Re- 
tiring very briefly behind the curtain, the 
figure again came forward, bringing the other 
desired spirit, somewhat shorter in height, 
with features not so distinctly visible, but 
equally substantial in the greeting of love, ac- 
companied by words of joy at the meeting. 
While these two forms were standing thus 
near, a third figure came out into the outer 
room and moved about us, being recognized 
by the conductor of the seance as one of the 
" Cabinet Spirits," so called, who are in some 
way accessory to the work of materialization, 
especially when spirit friends manifest them- 
selves in this way for the first time. Thus 
there were three distinct spirit forms pre- 
sented at one time ; the first form melting 
away before the second had finished the few 
>j< 216 £1 





* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

words of greeting : the whole appearance 
occupying some three or four minutes. 
Later on the same occasion the writer was 
called up to greet still another near relative, 
whose name was given, and who upon re- 
quest taking his hand, came out to salute 
the assembled company, then retiring to the 
doorway of the cabinet dematerialized, sink- 
ing out of sight, as it were into the floor, and 
distinctly uttering the words " good-night " 
when half way down, and so finally disap- 
pearing at the floor as a light vapor ! 

At another seance of the same medium, 
a so called " Cabinet Spirit " came out into 
the outer room, plainly visible as a form, 
though with features a little indistinct, and 
taking the writer by the hand led him into 
the dark cabinet room for the purpose, as it 
proved, of satisfying him that the material- 
ized figure was not the medium, but another 
and distinct spirit. Holding with his left 
hand to the hand of this spirit who remained 
standing at his side and visible in the dark by 
virtue of a phosphorescent light of its own, 
which seemed to permeate and radiate from 
the whole figure, the writer at the request of 
this cabinet spirit, with his right hand ascer- 
tained beyond question to his own mind, that 
* 217 £1 








* 



<Xbe puritp an!) Besting 



* 



WM& 



as 





the medium was then recumbent in an arm 
chair and in seeming unconscious state. 
This experience was confirmed by others of 
the seance circle taken in by the same spirit 
form in the same manner. Similar expe- 
riences have attended, with many interesting 
variations, the gradual development of this at 
first very astounding phase of spirit manifes- 
tation. 

Does the word " impossible " come to the 
reader's mind, we can only say that these ex- 
periences were real to us, as similar proof has 
been real to many, many seekers. Some fifty 
years ago, when sitting with the then noted 
medium, Daniel Hume, known afterwards as 
D. D. Home, with two other near friends 
about a table, and with all hands visible on 
the table except our own, which were allowed 
to be under the table, we had two well 
formed hands placed in ours, one of adult 
dimensions, and the other of infant size, and 
both gently but distinctly grasped ; the first 
being announced by the medium as of a near 
departed relative, and the other as that of a 
lost infant child. We knew it was no mere 
imagination. It was but a question of time 
and development from such beginning when 
the full form materializations should become 





Warn 






* 



218 



* 








* of flfeofcern Spiritualism * 

possible, as they are to-day made manifest. 
By parity of reasoning the obscurities and 
difficulties still attending such manifestations 
must gradually disappear through better con- 
ditions of the witnesses in the seance cham- 
bers, and perhaps better understanding of 
the processes on the spirit side. Volumes 
could be filled with the veritable details al- 
ready accumulated. That they are real is 
not matter of inference, but of knowledge on 
the part of those who have conducted their 
inquiries in the simplicity of a faith that is 
not hampered by too much learning of the 
old schools, or by mental prejudice that must 
ever be slow to find out new truth. The ex- 
posures which have been from time to time 
triumphantly announced, have in many cases 
been simply and only exposures of the igno- 
rance and bigotry of the inquirers ; for there 
is a bigotry of unbelief quite as rigid and un- 
approachable as the cast-iron beliefs of old 
theology. It must have set every thinking 
reader to very serious reflection to read, as he 
might in one of our prominent newspapers a 
few years ago, the account of such an ex- 
posure, with the earnest assurance that " any 
one who could still believe in such humbug 
must be a fool ; " and to find in another col- 
>j< 219 % 







* 



Zbc purity anfc Destiny 



* 





uran of the same journal the following item 
under the head of cable news from London : 
" Mysticism, Spiritualism, and the occult 
sciences in any form are very popular just 
now, not only in England, but throughout 
the whole continent. It seems as if a wave 
of thought were passing over Europe favor- 
ing the supernatural. In fact mysticism is 
becoming fashionable, and the last new 
marvel is discussed in every drawing room 
and at every dinner table." With so much 
smoke, it may well be inferred that there 
must be fire somewhere, and that it is spread- 
ing may be equally affirmed with such items 
among the foreign cable news of the daily 
press : a fire which the easy cry of " hum- 
bug " will hardly put out, as it certainly has 
not succeeded in doing yet, having rather in 
most cases fanned the flame with the breath 
that was meant to extinguish it. 

One of the first objections raised by in- 
quirers into these physical manifestations, 
and perhaps their chief stumbling-block, has 
been that the phenomena are, for the most 
part, though not always, produced in com- 
parative darkness. But it should be re- 
membered that the want of light takes away 
only one method of proof and identification, 





* 



* 






aHUs 



oSsta 



* of flfeofcern Spiritualism * 

namely that of sight ; the other senses of 
touch and hearing being still free to act, 
while the evidence so obtained is confirmed 
by proofs of intelligence and independent 
action on the spirit side, quite precluding 
the possibilities of automaton work. Be- 
sides, the difference between the self-lumi- 
nous quality of the spirit form and that of the 
medium in the dark cabinet or room before 
described, was a veritable fact, and has been 
noted by observers over and over again ; a 
fact of vision, and one which no one who 
has experienced it would admit to be ocular 
delusion, the vision being confirmed by the 
contemporaneous testimony of the sense of 
touch, the hand of the spirit form being dis- 
tinctly held. In a general way the necessity 
for exclusion of sunlight from the material- 
izing seance rooms has been illustrated by 
reference to other operations of nature, 
which at their inception require concealment 
and darkness as necessary conditions. Di- 
rect sunlight is, for instance too strong for 
the ordinary germination of seeds, which 
for the most part have to begin the process 
of building up material elements about 
their inherent spirit forms, under cover of 
the soil, though that soil needs to be vivi- 

ifc 221 £< 














* Zhe purity anfc 2>e0tin\> 

fied sooner or later by the sun's rays falling 
upon it. In its incipient movement the 
life of the plant which is to be, or what may 
be termed its spirit, cannot bear the direct 
power of light. All animal life, including 
man, shows similar concealment to be neces- 
ary at its inception. Is not the ordinary pro- 
cess of developing photograph plates in a 
dark room another illustration of this com- 
mon necessity ? Perhaps this obstacle to 
belief may be lessened, if not wholly re- 
moved for some minds, by their considering 
what are the functions of sunlight in produ- 
cing all natural phenomena. Is it not 
through the power of the sun's light that all 
forms once started into being are able to 
gather to themselves the elements which con- 
stitute their natural, visible composition and 
growth. We know how plants deprived of 
sunlight sicken and grow pale and feeble, if 
they do not die ; seemingly unable to draw 
from the earth and atmosphere the elements 
which constitute their proper bulk. As the 
sunlight is thus essential to the aggregation 
of material elements into living forms, so it 
is powerful to hold together the elements 
when once thus incorporated. Deprived of 
its sustaining power those elements tend 

* 222 tj, 



U- 




* of flfeofcern Spiritualism * 

sooner or later to feebleness of tension and 
finally to disintegration. Now it appears 
that the operation of materialization of spirit 
forms is to disintegrate temporarily the ele- 
ments, or portions of the elements constitut- 
ing the physical form of the medium, and 
appropriating these to the use of the materi- 
alized spirit form. Interesting experiments 
have been reported in which the medium in 
the cabinet was seated in a chair upon plat- 
form scales, so arranged that any change of 
weight would be shown outside. When the 
spirit forms appeared, it was testified that a 
noticeable reduction of the avoirdupois 
weight of the medium was indicated. The 
operation must plainly be easier in the ab- 
sence of the sunlight, the power which 
originally was so important a factor in bring- 
ing those elements together in the body of 
the medium, and helps to keep them there 
in daily life. 

On the other hand, the sudden introduc- 
tion of light upon a materialized spirit must 
operate to instantly send the denuded spirit 
of the medium to resume possession of the 
elements properly belonging to it, which had 
been drawn away for the purpose of material 
clothing to the spirit thus manifesting. Such 
* 223 % 



* Zbe purity anD Besting * 

has been the experience in cases of exposure 
attempted in this manner by parties little 
understanding the conditions with which 
they were thus seriously and sometimes dan- 
gerously trifling, at the expense almost of 
the life of the medium. From all time the 
history of ghost seeing accords with this 
partial explanation. To make themselves 
visible to the natural eye or susceptible to 
touch, the spirits rising, as it has been gen- 
erally termed, have of necessity borrowed 
temporarily of some form already material- 
ized through the action of sunlight, and 
been able to retain the borrowed clothing 
only until the cock crow warned of the com- 
ing morning. By parity of reasoning it may 
be understood why a dim lamp light is more 
favorable to the manifestations than equally 
obscure day light ; the lamp light being a 
reduced form of the original sun light, and 
so less powerful to resist the work of dis- 
integration performed by spirits for their 
materializations. 

Again it is matter of common observa- 
tion with all inquirers that there is a force in 
the sun's rays more or less felt by everyone 
sensitive enough to permit the exercise of 
any form of mediumship, when the spirit 
^ 224 % 





* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

influence draws near to control. Pain in 
the head and increased exhaustion are very 
commonly experienced by mediums when 
exposed to too strong light during the exer- 
cise of their peculiar vocation ; and this par- 
ticularly at the beginning of their develop- 
ment. The sun light is too coarse or too 
strong for the finer conditions of spirit life ; 
the rays, which are themselves materialized 
forces, as it were striking too heavily upon 
the sensitive spirit, and causing the spirit, 
as well as the medium in sympathy, to 
shrink from its sudden or too powerful ap- 
proach. If the mediums and their control- 
ling spirits are thus sensitive, we can under- 
stand how the materialized spirits must be 
equally, if not more, quick to shrink from 
too strong light, and so find a reason for en- 
tire exclusion of light at the inception or 
taking on of the materialized form, and then 
for subdued light when they come out to be 
seen by the seance circle. 

Another reason for the exclusion of sun 
light at these materialization seances is in the 
difference between the light which seems to 
belong to the spirit-spheres and that to 
which the natural eye is fitted. There is a 
wonderful luminosity of the spirit forms 
■ - 225 



A^lm^S^3mW^i- . 





* Zhe purity anfc Destiny * 

varying in degree according to their condi- 
tions, and perhaps with the greater or less 
refinement of the observer. This light pales 
and disappears before the natural day, as 
the stars of our evening skies do when the 
morning comes, so that the spirits present 
could not easily make themselves visible. 
Such was the light before spoken of as ob- 
served in the materialized spirit forms ; a 
peculiar transfusion of mild phosphorescence 
making them appear self-luminous, which 
would have been obscured by the stronger 
rays of external sunlight. This light of the 
spirit-spheres has been often testified to by 
clairvoyant mediums as something beyond 
the power of description. 

To the further and not uncommon inquiry 
of doubting minds, " Why do not the spirits 
thus appearing give us some valuable infor- 
mation," one simple reply is, in the words 
of another, " the mere fact of seeing or 
sensing a departed spirit is of itself, great 
information. Even a few raps from over 
the river, telling us our departed friend is 
alive, is information by the side of which 
all other information pales." Indeed it is 
the very stupendous character of these mani- 
festations, these form materializations, when 
>£ 226 





: mw 





* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

first witnessed, which rouses all the forces of 
unbelief so promptly, and makes the essen- 
tial mental conditions of childlike receptivity 
for the moment so difficult, and often so 
impossible for the observer to retain. In- 
stead of complaining that so little has been 
gained in the developments of these forty 
or fifty years, rather is there occasion for 
wonder that such progress has been made in 
so brief a period ; and to accept the prom- 
ises given that the way will yet open for 
manifestations far beyond our hopes or im- 
aginings. But in fact much information has 
already been given through spirit sources, 
to which we shall allude later. 

It was said through the inspirational 
speaker before quoted, " how unreasonable 
are the old ideas of the spirit world, and how 
at variance with all we know of nature and 
what we, as spirits, bring to you ! The di- 
viding walls between you and the spirit world 
exist in your own organisms, and they will be 
annihilated. As the planet becomes puri- 
fied, more attenuated and refined, your or- 
ganisms will also be more refined, and you 
shall, face to face, be in communion with the 
inhabitants of the spirit world ; for the time 
cometh when clairvoyance will not be phe- 

»Jl . 227 >Jl 














* Zhe purity aitt Destiny * 



nomenal or exceptional as now, but when all 
eyes shall be open to the realities of the world 
in which dear ones are now dwelling." 

With all these recognized phenomena of 
materialization, which are accepted as facts 
more or less by Spiritualists, it is nevertheless 
to be candidly admitted that the last few 
years have not shown that development in 
this direction which the rapid opening of the 
wonderful signs seemed at one time to indi- 
cate, and was indeed promised by the spirit 
powers at work upon them. These manifes- 
tations have not progressed as hoped for and 
expected, and it is matter of much question- 
ing to know why. Two causes have been 
suggested, both of which have doubtless been 
largely instrumental in this slow advancement 
amounting almost to stagnation. The first 
of these is the failure of the seance circles to 
recognize and so co-operate with the high 
class of ancient spirits through whose labors 
these full form materializations were at the 
outset made possible. The conditions were 
seized upon too often with mere selfish pur- 
pose of gain by the seance managers or con- 
ductors ; the circles attending were actuated 
by too mixed, if not low motives ; and the 
mediums employed introduced elements of 





* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 











greed instead of deep desire to help on the 
cause of truth, thus disappointing the high 
purpose of the ancient chemists, and opening 
the way to lower influences, which have been 
repellant, and checked the progress of devel- 
opment. The controlling relation of ancient 
spirits in this work then just opening, was 
declared emphatically by them in addresses 
made some fifteen years ago. The interfer- 
ence and assumption of other influences has 
caused the stay of progress which may not be 
renewed until these ancient bands are recog- 
nized and responded to by the more sincere 
and devout inquirers. A second probable 
cause of the delayed development may be 
found in the combined opposition to the 
work by old church influences, whose re- 
ligious prejudice and bigotry have been potent 
to this end : ignorance of the truth and lust 
of power controlling and operating to mislead 
them all. 

Among the many and varied instrumen- 
talities employed in opening the way of life 
now more completely unfolding, these physi- 
cal manifestations of spirit presence and power 
have their place ; but interesting as they are 
on the material plane, like many other spirit 
movements within and outside of old church 



..^j; ■..■v.dSsHI 




* Zbc purity anfc Destiny * 

organizations, they are but means to the far 
greater end of lifting humanity out of the 
materiality of their conceptions of life, its 
duties, its purposes and its occupations, into 
more distinct perception of the spirit side of 
being, which, with all the struggle and boasted 
triumph over obstacles on the natural plane, 
is the only reality to remain when the external 
things are left behind. Come up higher, is 
the call of the spirit. This does not mean 
that the labors on the external plane are to 
be given up ; but that they be entered into 
with far different and higher purpose than 
now actuates the masses. "My Father 
worketh hitherto, and I work," are the re- 
ported words of the Master ; but filled with 
what different motive from that shown in the 
present prevailing scramble for the loaves and 
fishes ! Not for self and personal gain or 
aggrandizement, but for humanity is the call, 
believing and seeking to realize the practical 
meaning yet to be worked out in those often 
quoted words, " Seek ye first the kingdom of 
heaven, and all these things shall be added 
unto you." 

Those who consciously repel or are in- 
different to these modern approaches of the 
spirit-spheres, instead of welcoming the pos- 
* 230 x 



* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

sible coming with patient inquiry, may know 
thereby that they are hampered by prejudices 
which are of mundane origin, and which 
must ultimately give way to the increasing 
light. It is not easy for those who have 
experienced spiritual uplifting, and have per- 
haps attained high spiritual culture, to un- 
derstand how they nevertheless may be and 
often are closed by their mental states against 
recognition of these modern approaches. 
Deeming their illumination to be something 
superior to the natural plane of experience, 
as it is, they are prone to ignore the law 
by which the light is permitted to reach 
them as having universal bearing, and so are 
unable to recognize the channels of com- 
munication through which often the spiritual 
afflatus is breathed upon them. They can 
reach by fine argument the principle of ex- 
tension of what they recognize as natural 
law into the spiritual world, but fail to per- 
ceive the possible reciprocity involved in the 
spirit-spheres being permitted to respond 
by direct approaches to the natural or ex- 
ternal plane of human experience. This has 
been illustrated through all the centuries, 
from the time when sincerely devout Jews 
ignored the presence of the Christ man who 
* 231 * 

















^$sS 



* Zhe purity anfc Besting * 

had appeared among them from the obscure 
village of Nazareth, to these latter days 
when devout and spiritually uplifted Christ 
followers, in their turn, find no light in the 
developments of Modern Spiritualism. As- 
sured through certain attainments and up- 
liftings of the spirit, that they are not living 
on a low plane, many devout religionists of 
to-day refuse to be increased in their spirit- 
ual insight, as something they do not need, 
especially when it is offered through such 
sources as ordinary spirit mediumship. Can 
any good, they ask, come out of this new 
Nazareth ? We would deal lovingly with 
minds so actuated, while drawing their atten- 
tion, as in previous writings, to the calling 
of his disciples by the Master out of the 
ranks of simple-minded fishermen, rather 
than from the more cultured classes. The 
adaptation of those thus called was in their 
native sensitiveness and receptivity to things 
of the spirit, which do not come of mental 
training, but are in the nature of a gift. 
This has been shown in some simple-minded 
and uneducated public mediums of Modern 
Spiritualism, who while not developed men- 
tally perhaps to be capable instruments for 
use by spirits of known attainments intel- 



m 



SfcSfc^ 



•?.Wfc 



* of flfeofcern Spiritualism 





lectually, may be and often are channels of 
spiritual communications of the highest 
order, though lacking the most cultured 
forms of expression. Those who content 
themselves with their spiritual attainments on 
the plane which they can in some sort intel- 
lectually understand and accept, may find 
themselves, when entering the spirit-spheres, 
easily superseded by many supposed inferior 
spirits who had been quite unknown to 
them in earth life. The story of Lazarus 
in Abraham's bosom illustrates a general 
truth beyond the compensation for lack of 
'external riches. The heart which in its 
simple trust has been moved to spiritual 
uplifting in gratitude for a crust of bread, 
may be opened to a gift which might fail 
to come in response to the most solemn 
grace ever pronounced over a table loaded 
with external luxuries. 

An interesting and to outside observers a 
confounding manifestation of spirit prompting 
and influence, has been the erection in Bos- 
ton of the beautiful building known as " The 
First Spiritual Temple," as inscribed in scroll- 
work over the principal entrance. This 
building, raised largely by the accumulated 
means of one individual, whose motive in 















* £be purity anfc Besting * 

the building and in its work since, has plainly- 
been most unselfish, however hampered and 
obstructed by seen and unseen influences 
opposed through ignorance and old church 
prejudice, was dedicated to uses covering a 
broad platform of philanthropies more or 
less common to all associations seeking to 
help humanity, with the one distinguishing 
feature of continued spirit communion as a 
basis of teaching and action, so that the 
organization should not have its life closed in, 
or its growth dwarfed by any form of eccle- 
siastical rule, authority or dogma, which could 
limit or restrain ever renewing and renewed 
inspiration and revelation from the spirit- 
spheres. From such sources alone are the 
churches of to-day being brought to health 
and higher usefulness, as indicated in the wid- 
ening, liberal tendency of them all. In the 
words of a recent inspirational speaker, 
" The theologian is right when he says, 
without a special revelation from heaven we 
could know little of God and nothing of 
immortality ; he only gets wrong when he 
limits that special revelation as God has 
never limited it, and does not limit it." 
With this broad fact held at the foundation 
of all organizations, ever fresh recurrence may 







* of flfeofcern Spiritualism * 

be had to the sources of spiritual light, 
which are waiting to send down their benig- 
nant rays to man, as fast and as far as his 
development will permit ; and human pro- 
gression will move on without hindrance, as 
it is ultimately destined to do. Organization 
is good in the greater power of combined 
force for holding development already at- 
tained, and encouraging every effort to reach 
up higher ; but fatal to the ends of progress 
when this power is used to close up the av- 
enues of inspiration and revelation, for which 
it can offer, as a poor substitute, only its 
own self-constituted authority. This topic 
has been markedly illustrated in the vain 
endeavors at creed-bound organizations 
among Spiritualists. It is a momentous 
topic to the whole church of Christ to-day, 
and indeed to every form of organization, 
social, political or religious. Walls which 
to-day may shut out evil, may to-morrow 
prove barriers to the approach of good, and 
in time need to be removed ; and the mind 
willing to act with God's will, must ever be 
ready to aid in the removal. 

We have claimed Spiritualism to be the 
"Opening Way" to recognition and wise 
reception of the philosophies of life which 
* 235 « 











tMSM 










* Gbe purity anb Destiny * 

are now unfolding to earth from the higher 
spheres : philosophies not new in their fun- 
damental ideas of love to God and man, 
which are the essence of the Christ teachings 
from all time, but in their practical ap- 
plications of the brotherly love taught by 
the Master, which are as yet so far from their 
legitimate outworking for the good of all 
men. It is beginning to be accepted that 
possession of wealth constitutes a steward- 
ship for the benefit of many. A further 
stewardship is yet to be recognized in the 
possession and use of brain force, whereby 
those gifted with constructive powers of in- 
vention and organization, and possessing 
quick insight into profitable results of labor, 
will dedicate their powers more to the needs 
and uses of their fellow men than to their 
own selfish purposes and aggrandizement. 
In every relation of life a call to come up 
higher is sounding from the skies, to which 
heed must be given by all who would find 
themselves in any degree able to stand before 
the judgment seat of these latter days. 



* 













* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 



ARTICLE VIII. 

Spiritualism Waiting — Possession and 
Obsession. 

Seeming to be at a standstill. — Motives of inquiry. 

— Difficulty of identification. — Testimony as to 
conditions in the spirit realms. — Wisdom of an- 
cient spirits. — Progress retarded by antagonistic 
spirits and bands. -^ The Roman Church. — 
The freedom of Spiritualism opposed to all church 
rule. — The first Spiritual Temple again. — Lack 
of true seeking by inquirers a cause of outside 
indifference. — Spiritualists scattered through all 
the churches. — Spirit forces thus brought to 
bear. — Miracles old and new. — The Bible 
illuminated. — Objections considered. — Univer- 
sality of mediumship. — Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
- — Testimony of inspirational speakers. — Young 
inquirers to be restrained. — The home circle 
best. — Unbalanced mediumship. — Possession 
and Obsession, what are they ? — Insanity largely 
disorderly mediumship. — How to be treated. 

— Obsession in accordance with Law. 

The foregoing article has been directed 
mainly to a presentation of the more promi- 

* 2 37 £ 





* Gbe purity anfc Besting * 

nent facts of spirit intercourse in the pri- 
mary way of physical manifestations ; and 
has been gathered out of the writer's own 
experience. It is admitted that progress in 
this direction seems to have been stayed in 
the past few years. The same is true of all 
forms of spirit intercourse : and the question 
is forced upon us, why has not Spiritualism 
made greater advances, seeming sometimes 
to retrograde rather than progress ? Why 
have not the avenues of mediumship in 
general been opened wider — for clearer 
identification : for more information regarding 
the spirit-spheres ; and for more light upon 
all the strivings and trials of human life ? 
Is the fault in the votaries of Spiritualism; 
or is the cause, though already so full of 
wonders and helpfulness, to be laid aside and 
gradually to pass out of view ? We believe 
the latter alternative to be impossible. 

Inquiry into Spiritualism has been and 
still is likely to be approached in three di- 
rections, each leading to collateral questions 
and investigation according to the turn of 
mind of the inquirer. The first and most 
natural seeking is with desire to meet and 
communicate with dear departed relatives 
and friends, prompted by grieving hearts : 

* 238 g, 




* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

one word assured from that other side being 
more effective to assuage the grief than all the 
consolations offered from other sources. The 
second desire, perhaps, is to become informed, 
as far as may be, of the conditions of exist- 
ence in the spirit realms; a natural inquiry in 
that direction. The third and generally last, 
is the willingness to be instructed through 
advanced spirits who have attained greater 
knowledge by long dwelling in the spirit- 
spheres and it may be by many reincarna- 
tions in earth life : and this independently 
of names or personalities as affecting the 
character of the highest teachings which the 
inquirer can invite. 

In the first line of inquiry one of the chief 
difficulties has been the identification of spirits. 
Messages may be received containing satisfac- 
tory test proof of the identity of a spirit an- 
nounced ; yet if the inquirer goes to another 
medium seeking communication with the 
same spirit, he may receive a different message 
purporting to come from the same influence, 
or he may be disappointed in getting any 
response at all from the desired source. Ex- 
ceptions to such experience have been happily 
met and assured often enough to save the 
discrediting of all communications ; but the 

* 2 39 * 



jpsjar 





* Zbe purity anfc Destiny * 



general fact remains, without any comprehen- 
sive explanation other than is to be found in 
the mixed conditions of the spirit-spheres 
nearest to the earth plane. In that border- 
land we may easily believe, or rather would 
expect that there must be a conglomeration 
of influences well calculated to confuse the 
minds of spirits and the near friends seeking 
intercourse, and thus disturbing the condi- 
tions of the medium. Like the reflections 
of earth and sky shown on the surface of an 
unruffled lake, which become distorted by the 
first breeze that moves the quiet waters, so we 
can understand how mediums may be turned 
into uncertain and mixed communicators by 
the inharmonious conditions of the inquirers 
and of the spirits. There is much yet to be 
learned on both sides of the veil to make 
always sure that the loving messages are 
obtained as craved by a grieving heart on this 
side. It would seem the wisest course, for 
the present, if baffled in one direction, for 
the inquirer to try some other medium, until 
the one who evidently gives the best test and 
communication is found, and then to con- 
tinue the seeking through such one. 

In the second general direction of inquiry, 
— as to the conditions of life in the spirit- 



* 



240 







mm 




^iffi^l^SSIi^P" '■-""' WS 





* of flDobern Spiritualism * 

spheres and their knowledge of mundane in- 
terests, — there has been much and very varied 
testimony from the spirits according to their 
standpoint, and doubtless also in a measure 
to the wants of the inquirer's mind : for the 
mental states of the seeker have much to do 
with the shaping of responses. This need 
not and does not lead to false statements, 
but is likely to give emphasis in one direction 
or another to special pictures of the spirit life, 
which while true in their way and degree, do 
not and necessarily cannot include in one 
scene every phase of spirit existence. So too 
in attempting to tell of coming events, which 
spirits often see correctly in remarkable an- 
ticipation, they are as often utterly in error 
as to time, so that little reliance can be 
placed upon such vaticination or benefit re- 
ceived, except possibly in putting the inquirer 
upon his guard. Such effect may be quite as 
well for the inquirer as if coming experience 
had been laid out in reliable details of time and 
circumstance ; and this for very obvious rea- 
sons, especially in the present whirlwind rush 
of all human life. But there has been much 
given, so far as the mortal mind can receive, 
to show that the conditions in the spirit- 
spheres are the prolongation or carrying out in 
>& 241 g, 








M&H^^^s*^S^^^i 






^&i* 



* Gbe purity ant) Destiny * 

infinite variety, but unerring certainty, of the 
tedencies of life which have been developed 
in each individual through the mundane ex- 
perience. This results in a judgment through 
each individual soul, bringing joy to those 
who by faithfulness to duty have earned the 
salutation, " Well done, good and faithful 
servant;" and to those who have failed to 
improve their opportunities, every form of 
retribution, down to the " lake of fire " and 
the " wailing and gnashing of teeth ; " figura- 
tive but sometimes terrible sufferings that 
must follow all wrong doing, through a 
justice that cannot err. 

In the third general direction of inquiry, — 
the seeking of wisdom from advanced spir- 
its, — quite as much has been given as the 
mental states of the inquirers have been able 
to receive and digest, that is make really 
their own for guidance of conduct and bet- 
ter growth. These responses have in no 
way improved upon the simple, fundamental 
truths declared by the Master, so far as the 
moral principles are involved ; but they have 
illustrated those principles with new light 
which has often brought satisfaction and 
growth of soul to the recipients. Obstacles 
have been in the way to keep back such in- 
K 242 >£ 




* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

struction, as in the other directions of in- 
quiry, which may now be briefly considered. 

Two forces seem to have been at work to 
retard the progress hoped for at the first 
recognition of possible communication with 
the spirit-spheres : one arising from the op- 
position of spirit bands moved by various 
motives to thwart Spiritualists in their desire 
to know more, co-working with the antago- 
nism of all the old church influences of those 
still living on this side ; the second springing 
from the failure of Spiritualists to recognize 
that soul culture must underlie all their 
seeking into spiritual things, if they would 
see their cause grow in its proper potency, 
and the ways opened to wider vision, and 
deeper insight, into the wonders and myste- 
ries of the life beyond. 

The first of these opposing forces, the 
intervention of antagonistic spirits, acting 
individually and in bands, calls for careful 
investigation and united action on the part 
of truth-seeking Spiritualists. Prompted, 
some of them, by merely mischievous de- 
sires, while others have doubtless been actu- 
ated by mistaken purpose to do God service, 
these influences have continued a persistent 
and more or less organized opposition. The 






.-•#* 



* Gbe purity anfc Stestin^ * 

power of spirits banded together out of their 
habit of mind and fixed prejudices shaped 
through association with the various forms 
of church organization in their earth life, is 
only half realized by Spiritualists, and still 
less by those who have no knowledge of 
spirit return in these latter days. Of these 
forces, that of the Roman Catholic church, 
by its more complete organization, extended 
through so long time, has been the most 
active and persistent ; and as in every con- 
test moved by religious zeal, the most bitter 
of all the opponents ; though the less con- 
centrated opposition from those brought up 
in other forms of sectarian differences have 
taken their part in the contention. This 
power of the Roman church is not limited 
to those still in the earth form. Spirits who 
have gone over bound by their ideas of 
obedience to that mother church as their 
only surety for salvation, are naturally drawn 
together, and thus united have been and 
still are a power on the spirit side necessarily 
directed against all who do not accept the 
same authority on this side of life. Spirit- 
ualism demands and encourages a freedom 
of thought and inquiry into all things of the 
spirit, which no other organization has here- 
in 244 gj 



* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

tofore attained ; and if that cannot be broken 
up and suppressed, the days of Roman su- 
premacy, as well as the credal predominance 
of all other churches, are numbered. Rec- 
ognizing this as the most threatening power 
which has yet been directed against the as- 
sumptions of Rome and its tributaries, these 
influences have sought to distract and crip- 
ple the labors and inquiries of Spiritualists 
in every way possible. 

Such interference has been indicated in 
the history of the " First Spiritual Temple " 
in Boston, before referred to. Starting un- 
der auspices that seemed to promise the 
very best conditions for enlightening the 
community upon the highest phases of 
Modern Spiritualism, it was insidiously at- 
tacked by these old church forces, as seen at 
the time of its dedication by more than one 
clairvoyant medium, and so has been con- 
strained in various ways from moving into 
the work laid out by its spirit founders and 
original promoters. Leading workers at its 
inception were removed by death or other- 
wise ; one staunch man alone of them all, 
whose means chiefly had built the structure, 
they could not drive or persuade to give up 
his undertaking. They have succeeded in 
* 245 * 






* £be purity anfc Destiny * 



drawing away, temporarily as it would ap- 
pear, many of its original supporters, and 
diverting them to other centres of spiritual 
communing and teaching ; thus retarding the 
full uses into which the Temple will doubt- 
less be ultimately brought, and toward which 
it appears to be now tending, though with 
small present encouragement. Should this 
seem improbable to have been so brought 
about, we would call to mind the long years 
of Roman Catholic rule, at one time con- 
trolling the whole civilized world, whose 
votaries passing out from earth life, must 
have been drawn together by the law of 
affinity which rules in spirit life, and con- 
tinued their allegiance, with thought to serve 
God through advancing in every way the 
interests of the church below. Thus banded 
together in the spirit-spheres, they have been 
a mighty host through which the higher 
angels have had to struggle to let in the 
light which, notwithstanding the opposition, 
has given joy to so many minds. Such op- 
position to the Temple seems to have been 
anticipated in the higher councils which had 
its work in charge ; so that they can and do 
accept it patiently, as in the ordering of a 
wise Providence, for purposes it mav be of 
>& 246 >$t 






* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

discipline and ultimate strengthening : and 
so the Temple and its work stand to-day a 
continuing surprise to outside observers, and 
to not a few of those who have attended its 
ministrations. 1 

Is there then no limit to this church 
power ? The free mind sees that it cannot 
be allowed to continue much longer its ob- 
struction to free thought, which shall lead 
every spirit, in or out of the body, directly 
to the Father of all spirit. The Roman 
Catholic church, so prominent in the exer- 
cise of such power, has grown, as we see it, 
like a huge tree from roots deeply imbed- 
ded in the earth plane, with St. Peter's as the 
central source of its life ; spreading its mani- 
fold branches over the mundane sphere and 
up into the nearest spirit realms. With all 
the beautiful lives, however, whichhave graced 
its rolls, and they have been many, though 
doubtless, out of their native quality, these 
would have been equally true and beautiful in 
their way, to whatever church they might have 
been attached, it is apparent to every outside 
observer that lust of power has grown to be its 
ruling motive, and by this it must ultimately 
perish. 

1 See Appendix. 
* 247 gt 



- 





* Zbc purity ant) Destiny * 

For a purpose, doubtless, this growth of 
power has been permitted : but with all its 
seeming increase in some directions of late 
years, it has reached its limit, as we see it, and 
will ere long show signs of decadence and de- 
cay and cease to gather in new forces to per- 
petuate its hitherto extended sway. We write 
it not in unkindness, but in justice to truth 
as it is shown to us. In God's good time 
will developing humanity be left free to find 
the good Father, and send its prayers and 
thanksgivings up without waiting for church 
or priesthood to cripple its natural, simple as- 
pirations with ritual and form that kill the 
spirit. Doubtless the Roman church and 
all other creedal associations have filled, and 
may yet fill a use in helping humanity up the 
steeps of civilization ; and so far as they 
have accomplished this, they are entitled to 
recognition and gratitude ; but all the while 
they have tended to keep their subjects in 
swaddling clothes. Any church which ar- 
rogates to itself the possession of all truth, 
and claims through its head supreme control 
of the spiritual interests of its people, with 
infallibility in its decisions, must and will be 
broken up, and ultimately merged in the 
broader church of humanity. This broader 

%4 248 £| 







* of flDofcern Spiritualism 



* 





church will never presume to offer itself as 
mediator between God and man, but only as 
a loving helper to lift up the down trodden, 
so long as there shall be such among Earth's 
people, and to stimulate and guide human 
aspirations to the highest source of Love and 
Light they can reach. The great tree of life 
shall yet flourish. With its roots imbedded 
in the finer conditions of the earth sphere, it 
will send forth leaves that shall be for the heal- 
ing of the nations ; while its uplifting branches 
shall pierce the spheres above. It seems to 
be law that the very highest spirit culture and 
growth must have their beginning and foun- 
dation in the mundane state, constituting 
thereby the wonderful circuit of life in which 
all creation takes its part. A recognition of 
this law calls all the more to those still in the 
earth sphere to do each their part in purifying 
the soil for the opportunity of the great Tree's 
roots, down to the subtlest filament of its 
basic growth and expansion. Thus the mil- 
lennial days will come with rejoicing not only 
to those yet in mortal form, but send their 
joy up to the outermost or innermost spheres 
encircling this regenerated planet. 

The second prominent cause of the seem- 
ingly slow progress of Spiritualism during 
* 249 k 














* £be purity anb Besting * 

later years, has been, as before noted, in the 
failure of Spiritualists to recognize that soul 
culture must underlie all their seeking into 
spiritual things, if they would see these things 
expand into wider and more beautiful devel- 
opment. Want of this has been noticed by 
outside observers, who seeing the compara- 
tively external interest of many Spiritualists 
in the mere phenomena, have been deterred 
thereby from any serious investigation. The 
prevailing dormant interest in things of the 
spirit has received slight awakening from the 
mere curiosity seeking in Spiritualism. Such 
seeking has little power to break up the in- 
tellectual unbelief which has grown to such 
proportions, led on by the universal drift of 
intellectual activity in the development of 
material interests, till utterly absorbed and 
spell-bound in the greed for money making 
and grasping ; now the dominant force 
throughout the civilized world. Beautiful 
exceptions to this drift are to be found, and 
we must hope that they will prove to be a 
leaven to leaven the whole lump in coming 
time ; but they are exceptions rather than the 
rule; and even they can hardly free themselves 
from the influences of their environment 
which have so completely crushed out all 
K 250 h 






* of fIDobern Spiritualism * 

power of discerning spirits and spiritual 
things recorded as possible and actual attain- 
ment in the olden time. 

Meanwhile there has been in recent years 
a growing freedom of the old churches toward 
independent inquiry of the individual mind, 
tending to send old theologies into the back 
ground. This process is going on with rapid 
strides. Men and women are asking not so 
much what the true interpretation and mean- 
ing of the old theological confusions may be; 
but rather how they can rise to a higher, 
purer plane of culture in all the ways and 
doings of their daily lives. In sympathy 
with this feeling many Spiritualists who have 
recognized the want of the highest interest 
in the public gatherings of the believers, are 
to be often found now attending the meet- 
ings of the more recently liberated disciples 
of the Christian fold, rejoicing to hear the 
direct application of the Christ teachings. 
Bringing with them their conviction of the 
presence of denizens of the spirit-spheres, 
they open the way, through their unspoken 
belief, to nearer approach of the higher bands, 
who have been pressing in upon earth life 
since the advent of Modern Spiritualism to 
help humanity to something more than mere 
* 251 * 










* Gbe purity anfc Besting * 

expression of acceptance of the Christ prin- 
ciples. Such infiltration of spirit influence 
among the more liberal and growing churches 
cannot fail to be adding its part in the gene- 
ral awakening, so that it would be no matter 
of surprise to see very striking manifesta- 
tions of spirit presence break out in the very 
midst of some of the oldest church organiza- 
tions, such as may for a time quite surpass 
in beauty and power the best that have yet 
been shown in gatherings of recognized Spir- 
itualists. 

It is not easy to appreciate, though it has 
often been stated from various spirit sources, 
through what a dense stratum of lower influ- 
ences these higher bands have had to find 
their way in their approaches to earth life — 
the many, many souls that have passed out 
of their mundane existence in undeveloped 
conditions, and so are held spell bound by 
mundane attractions. Spiritualists who have 
opened their minds and hearts too unreserv- 
edly to the approaches of these lower spirits 
have found, often to their cost, that not 
every influence that may come is to be 
trusted, though they may present them- 
selves under the guise of angels of light ; 
learning by experience that the " gates ajar " 









* 



of HDofcern Spiritualism * 





are opening equally to all the spirit-spheres 
attached to this planet. Try the spirits was 
the Apostle's injunction. It has been and 
still is a yet more needed warning in these 
latter days of closing in of the old and open- 
ing of a new era for humanity. That bands 
of advanced spirits, though not recognized 
by all, have actuated the minds and teach- 
ings of the free souls who in very recent 
years and with increasing power have come 
out from the limitations of old theology, and 
are now feeding the hungry crowd so long 
unsatisfied and restless with the husks that 
have been offered them before, is believed 
by the enlightened Spiritualists who have 
been rendering good service through their 
unspoken influence and their desire to har- 
monize with the outworkings of the new 
freedom. By experience they know the 
value of their conviction of the near pres- 
ence of the spirit-spheres ; how it has given 
a reality in their consciousness to all things 
of the spirit, which they could not attain 
before, until freed from the shackles thrown 
over their minds by the wide-spread, absorb- 
ing interests on the material side of life. 
The wonderful development of external sci- 
ence and art ; the overcoming of so many 

* 2 53 * 





* Gbe purity anfc Destiny * 

impediments on the natural plane by inven- 
tions ; and the consequent selfish struggles of 
competition in every direction, have in the 
century now drawing to its close so blinded 
the seekers who have followed in the old 
lines of spiritual inquiry, that they have been 
for the most part but groping after truth. 

An evidence of this blindness has been 
shown in the disposition to deny the so-called 
miracles of the early Christian centuries, re- 
petition of which in these latter days, through 
the labors and sufferings often of spirit medi- 
ums, has thrown so much light upon those old 
recorded experiences, and opened the way to 
a better understanding and acceptance of the 
ancient scriptures. With this help the Bible 
has been read under a new light ; and all the 
teachings of the wonderful Book have been 
received with a new power, notwithstanding 
the disposition of some Spiritualists to throw 
it aside, when they first began to realize how 
creed-bound they had been under their former 
reading and teachings. Albeit that the new 
light came to their minds through physical 
manifestations, the tiny raps it may have been, 
giving intelligent response from that hitherto 
unknown side of life, they have at first yielded 
to the pendulum swing and gone over some- 

ffi 2 54 * 






* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

times to violent negation of their previous 
beliefs. Gradually attaining a better under- 
standing of spiritual things, they have become 
settled to an equilibrium nearer the truth, 
and so ready to rejoice, with a new satisfac- 
tion, in all the good that has been and is to 
be gained out of all Scriptures of the past. 
May it not be that the religious world is 
waiting now unconsciously for a revival such 
as has not been known in this day and gen- 
eration, springing out of the minds cleared 
largely, though indirectly, through Modern 
Spiritualism, which whether recognized or 
not, has quickened and helped on their grow- 
ing freedom and more direct aspirations. 
Spirit mediums will not cease to be developed 
and help the work on; but they will be on a 
higher plane of seeking, and draw more ad- 
vanced bands from the spheres to join in the 
redemption of man on lines so plainly shown 
by the Master eighteen hundred or more years 
ago, and still so far from being directly applied 
to the practical issues of every day human ex- 
perience. Then altruism will cease to be 
something talked of as a sort of new phi- 
losophy, but in very truth the outworking 
of the Christ teachings ; and lead to what 
will be indeed a new heaven and a new earth, 
* 255 k 



* <Tbe purity aufc Deetiui? * 

for the peace and rejoicing of every well 
born child of man. 

It may be helpful here to meet and we 
hope throw light upon some of the obstacles 
to acceptance of Spiritualism, which have 
been encountered by too hasty or prejudiced 
inquirers. An early objection offered has 
been that " Spiritualism is only one theory 
among various possible explanations of the 
phenomena." The error lies in not recog- 
nizing the fact that while other theories may 
account for some and perhaps many of the 
phenomena, the Spiritualist theory is the 
only one that can meet all the facts. The 
closer that scientists examine into the mys- 
teries, the more they are forced to this con- 
clusion, however unwilling they may be to 
accept it as the only way out of the dilemma 
into which the many and varied manifesta- 
tions have forced them. Again, " depend- 
ence upon physical proof for the hope of 
immortality," is complained of. The neces- 
sity, and it has been and still is to outside 
observers a necessity, that the inquirer 
" must play the part of a detective ; must 
guard against frauds ; must invent ingenious 
tests ; must be ready to work in the dark," 
comes, as has been said over and over again, 
* 256 g, 



1*^ 



* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

from the mental state of the community at 
large, which has lost the power of discerning 
spirits, recognized as once possible in the 
early days of the Christian dispensation ; so 
that physical proofs and the necessarily 
accompanying methods of testing them, have 
been the only possible avenue of approach 
on the spirit side. The difficulty is compli- 
cated by the fact that the state of mind in 
which the inquirer approaches his investiga- 
tion has often much to do with the character 
of the manifestations, in whatever way they 
may be presented. So sensitive are the 
conditions of mediumship that suspicion of 
fraud in the mind of the inquirer invites the 
very fraud he would repudiate, and opens 
the way to the approach of false influences, 
which rejoice in every opportunity to de- 
ceive. For best results the inquiry must be 
conducted with minds clear of preconceived 
ideas and prejudices, and so be able in child- 
like receptivity, not childish credulity, to 
recognize and measure true conditions fairly 
presented. Like the mariner's compass, 
these conditions are sensitive to the ap- 
proach of any opposing or diverting influ- 
ence, and while pointing to truth when not 
interfered with, they can be and too often 
* 257 g, 



* Gbe purity ant) Stestins * 

are deflected, and so made to appear false 
and unstable. 

Another objection raised, that " no im- 
portant communication of any great human 
invention or discovery, and no new thought, 
or a line of great poetry, have been given 
through mediums," shows the mistaken 
ideas held by many people concerning me- 
diumship. Spirits from the spheres about 
us, individually or in bands, encompass 
every human being while in mortal form, 
and have more or less to do with the shaping 
of each life. Most students of the subject 
have been persuaded of this. Now, while 
every one is thus more or less mediumistic, 
that is moved upon, prompted, and guided 
by influences from the spirit-spheres, divinely 
appointed agencies, according much with 
and attracted by the character of each indi- 
vidual, the publicly recognized mediums are 
those who not only are prompted in the 
conduct of their own lives more or less 
consciously, but can be used to give com- 
munications to others. When so used as 
channels for communication, much may de- 
pend upon their average development as fit 
instruments for the varying powers of the 
spirits communicating. Under such often 
# 258 ig 










■i 




" TAi> 








* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

inferior instrumentalities highly developed 
spirits could hardly be expected to equal 
their utterances when in the mortal form ; 
nor be able to communicate any great inven- 
tions or discoveries through brains totally 
unfit for such use. Added to this impedi- 
ment is the possibility that the name given 
with any communication may be wholly 
assumed, and the communication come from 
some inferior spirit, willing to trifle with the 
eagerness of the inquirer. Recognizing the 
fact of more or less universal mediumship, 
in varying degrees of development, it may 
be understood that all inventions are, more 
or less, given by impression to waiting 
minds ; coming we know not from how 
high source in aid of those seeking in the 
direction of discovery ; and more or less 
owing to the sensitive or mediumistic char- 
acter of the individual so touched or 
prompted. The words of the old fable are 
applicable here, as in so many other ways of 
human effort and development : " Put thy 
shoulder to the wheel and then call on Ju- 
piter, and he will help thee." They are, in a 
way, applicable to all mental action, which is 
more or less inspired by and mingled with 
impressions thrown upon the receptive brain 
* 259 $ 






* 








Gbe purity anfc Destiny 



* 



from invisible sources ; it may be from 
spirits, or perhaps from the great reservoir 
of knowledge that seems to envelop and 
quicken all life on the planet and the spirit- 
spheres connected with it. This does not 
interfere with, but flows into and develops 
each one so impressed, resulting in a culture 
of the mind, and through that an awakening 
and growth of soul powers, which is the 
ultimate end of all human endeavor and 
experience. Many a man has prided him- 
self as the originator of fine thoughts and 
creative inventions, which came to him 
rather from inspiration : the new idea often 
springing into his consciousness at some un- 
expected moment; perhaps after being baf- 
fled by ineffectual efforts to seek the desired 
end through his own independent thinking 
and efforts. Over and over again has this 
been shown in human experience. A well- 
known author and poet expressed himself a 
few years since as follows : * " I wrote the 
poem rather as a duty than as a pleasure ; 
and yet here and there I found myself 
taken off my feet by that sudden influx of a 
tide that comes from we know not whence, 
but which makes being, and especially in- 

l Oliver Wendell Holmes to his friend, John G. Whittier. 
►$< 260 >J< 






* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

ternal vision, so intense and real. You, as 
a poet, know so well what that means." . . . 
" I think that some of the most real mo- 
ments of life are those in which we are seized 
upon by that higher power, which takes the 
rudder out of the hands of will, as the pilot 
takes the place of the captain in entering 
some strange harbor ; and I am sure I never 
know where I am going to be landed from 
the moment I find myself in the strange 
hands of the unknown power that has taken 
control of me." What is this but medium- 
ship, when the brain so touched had, by its 
own development or natural gift, reached a 
stage which could be receptive to such im- 
pulse and impression from spirit sources, and 
the occasion invited such use ? 

Similar testimony, though from a differ- 
ent point of view, comes from the statement 
of inspirational speakers, some of whom are 
conscious of standing outside their bodies 
and listening to the words uttered through 
their own lips but by other controlling 
speakers, and which on their returning to 
self control could thus be remembered, and 
in some measure repeated ; while other 
speakers are entirely unconscious when so 
used, and of course have no memory of 
<& 261 %i 




* Gbe purity anb ©eetinp * 

what has been said. As before stated, the 
name given by the spirit communicating may 
be assumed ; to satisfactorily determine which 
might require much scrutiny and experiment. 
This seeming difficulty has its good results 
in leading to the conclusion, that all that 
comes from the lips of spirit mediums should 
be judged by its own elements of truth, as 
recognized by the inquirer, rather than taken 
on the authority of the name given ; while 
by no means precluding the possibility of 
the name given being really that of the spirit 
prompting to speak or write. Is there then 
no value, it will perhaps be asked, in the words 
or writings of one who has proved himself a 
wise counsellor and friend to humanity by 
past good works and teachings, which have 
earned for him a name to be trusted ? Cer- 
tainly there is, and in the ordinary course of 
life such authority is to be relied upon until 
something better is shown ; but the fact 
remains that the listener or reader really 
appropriates only so much as he can receive, 
and so far only gains by it ; just as in mat- 
ters of pure science he holds any new truth 
only until some other dictum has been 
proved to be the more correct and advanced. 
Soul growth, like every other growth, is 
>£ 262 1J4 







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attained by accretion of new life, new thought, 
new power, adding their mite each day to 
the process of advancement ; while stagna- 
tion, which is the other alternative, may lead 
down to decay and dissolution. In offering 
this explanation, however, we would not be 
understood to admit that little or no new 
truth has been brought by the higher bands 
through recognized mediumship, to the com- 
prehension and aid of truth seekers. Much 
has been given, and much more will be, as 
conditions favor and minds are receptive. 

The possibility of misleading mediumship 
through control of mischievous spirits has 
been suggested ; and it has been asked, 
" Shall we not then decry all open gifts in 
this direction as dangerous" and " fear to 
have our children interested in this strange 
and misty borderland?" Doubtless there 
is need of caution in inviting the young and 
inexperienced to go into the inquiry through 
any and every public medium who may be 
found. As with every other gift there must 
be some prudence exercised in our use of 
this of mediumship, or it may prove a 
stumbling-block and mischievous; especially 
in these days of confusion at large, and still 
incomplete knowledge of much that is com- 
* 263 * 



: - : 2^S®^^^S^'^S©K"?w*%Wk 



* £be purity aub Bestiui? * 

prehended under the name of Spiritualism. 
If the young are brought into opportunity 
to observe the phenomena, it should be in 
company with older and experienced in- 
quirers who are sincere seekers, making the 
two or three gathered together in the name 
of truth. Rarely, if ever, should mediumis- 
tic qualities when indicated in any young 
person be encouraged to their full expres- 
sion, until the years of maturity in body and 
mind are reached. Too early giving up to 
such use, if quickened beyond simple growth, 
may prove exhausting to both body and 
mind, and perhaps prevent what might 
otherwise, in later years, prove a healthy, 
well-balanced and beautiful mediumship. 
The use of any instrument such as the " talk- 
ing-board," so-called, is especially to be 
avoided for children. These may or may 
not give true response ; the character of the 
communications through them depending so 
much upon the mental states of the inquirer, 
whether young or mature. Their very form 
is calculated to divert the mind from serious 
investigation into mere idle questioning, and 
so inviting a low class of spirits to raise 
false hopes and otherwise mislead the child- 
ish mind. If used in the hands of a child 
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* of flfeofcern Spiritualism * 

alone, these modes of seeking give too easy 
play to the idle fancies of their solitary 
devotees. 

It would seem that the highest and best 
mediumship is cultivated by retiring into 
one's self in silence, and then prayerfully 
opening the doors of the soul to such im- 
pressions and such growth as one can be 
capable of attaining through earnest desire 
to seek only truth ; and this without neglect- 
ing, but rather with the more zeal fulfilling 
every external duty to which there may be 
plainly a call. Not infrequently such fulfil- 
ment of external duty has proved the best 
opportunity for the unfoldment desired. 
When, however, several like-minded per- 
sons gather in circle for the common good, 
their united, prayerful seeking may draw 
down much blessing of the spirit not other- 
wise to be reached. Thus it is desirable, 
when possible, to have in every home, as 
before written, some resting-place, some 
holy of holies, where the members of the 
family may gather, however briefly, to invite 
such blessing as may be most needed for 
each member. Few words suffice at such 
times to help concentrate the minds of those 
present upon the purpose of their gathering, 

* 26s * 






* Zbc purity anD Destiny * 

and the loving messengers of God will do 
the rest in beautiful uplifting and strength- 
ening for good, which is of God. The home 
so conducted and blessed will ever prove a 
place of refuge to all its members who, no 
matter how far separated, will return in spirit 
to its loving embrace, until all may perhaps 
in time form new home circles of their own. 
Such life from generation to generation would 
do much toward realizing the promised mil- 
lennial days, and throw back the bars that 
could no longer keep man out of his para- 
dise regained. 

In this broad view of mediumship it will 
be seen that it is not true that " mediums 
are generally in unbalanced nervous equi- 
librium and live close to the danger line of 
insanity," as has been charged; though doubt- 
less some are so conditioned. The question 
has often been mooted, " Is genius allied to 
insanity?" Undoubtedly it is, since genius 
is another word for the very receptivity of 
mind to spirit impression and influence, such 
as characterizes the more avowed and public 
cases of mediumship. Thus it may and 
does sometimes happen that men of so-called 
genius are in " unbalanced nervous equi- 
librium," and sometimes, it may be only tem- 
% 266 >£ 



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* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

porarily, do topple over the " danger line of 
insanity." But such instances are hardly to 
be held up as warnings against the posses- 
sion and use of powers which are ordinarily 
recognized as belonging to genius. 

This brings us to a deeply important and 
sadly interesting direction of inquiry into 
Modern Spiritualism, in its bearing upon 
the question of insanity, as ordinarily under- 
stood ; and the light it throws upon the 
proper treatment of victims of that malady, 
as indicated in what are recognized as orderly 
and disorderly mediumship ; the former be- 
ing known as " possession," where the spirit 
control is temporary and under the direction 
of some guardian spirit or band ; and the 
latter as " obsession," when the medium's 
proper self is so merged or held by spirit in- 
fluences, that it cannot ward off their ap- 
proaches, or get relief from their more or 
less continuous control, and is unable, to 
that extent, to assert or express its own indi- 
viduality. This latter condition is ordina- 
rily recognized as insanity, and practically it 
is such, and often most sadly. There may 
be no discoverable disease or lesion of the 
brain, and yet the symptoms show the lack 
of self-control constituting insanity. 
* 267 qt 







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* Zhc purity anfc 2)e6tin^ * 

Spirits of varying degrees of development 
are more or less about every individual in 
mortal form ; being by no means limited to 
recognized mediums; their character depend- 
ing largely upon the conditions of each 
individual. Every inquirer soon learns that 
in all orderly mediumship some other Intel- 
ligence than the medium's self does, for the 
time being actuate, and more or less com- 
pletely control the mental action, whatever 
the nature of the communication thus given; 
the experience being of the same general 
character, whether high or low influences are 
permitted to manifest their presence. The 
control passes off after its communication has 
been given ; its mission so far filled ; and upon 
its leaving, the medium's own spirit resumes 
its proper control. This simple statement has 
been substantiated by too many thousand 
inquirers to be questioned now, however un- 
willing the minds of outside observers may 
be to accept it. But strange and perhaps 
low spirits may and do break in, sometimes 
it would appear quite unawares to themselves, 
and get more or less control of any man or 
woman whose proper self-control has been 
lessened or lost through conditions of mere 
physical health, it may be ; or more com- 

►£) 268 >£ 






* of flfcobern Spiritualism * 

monly through severe trials of experience 
that have exhausted the natural healthy 
forces of the mind ; thus excluding or shut- 
ting in the proper master or mistress of the 
house, and making a disorderly mediumship 
or obsession. In orderly mediumship the 
extent to which such undeveloped spirits 
may use the medium if allowed to control, 
is held more or less under the direction of 
the guardian spirit or band presiding over 
the manifestation ; such protection or guard- 
ianship being a well recognized fact among 
Spiritualists. In disorderly mediumship, 
commonly looked upon as insanity, such 
protection seems to be more or less sus- 
pended under the repelling force of the con- 
ditions involved, and the manifestations of 
spirit presence and control are full of vagaries, 
and not infrequently accompanied with vio- 
lent demonstrations quite foreign to the 
natural characteristics of the patient's proper 
self, and very difficult to manage or under- 
stand. When such cases have become deep 
seated and long continued, nothing short of 
the Christ power can reach them to cast out 
the control at once ; while the unbroken 
perseverance and never failing love of an 
attendant in charge can perhaps gradually lift 
>j« 269 >j< 



* £be purity anb Beating * 

the obsessing spirits so that they will leave 
before they have worn out the body in which 
they have themselves become, as it were, in- 
carcerated, and the patient's own spirit may by 
degrees, through similar loving care and en- 
couragement, be strengthened to resume its 
proper control. 

Painful opportunity for study in this 
direction has been given the writer ; and over 
and over again with most convincing dem- 
onstration of spirit obsession ; the patient, 
having lost control of self, and being more 
or less continuously under some so-called 
hallucination. Had the conditions of ob- 
session been better understood at the out- 
set of this case, long years of watching and 
waiting might perhaps have been shortened. 
But by way of compensation, it has been 
stated from the spirit side, that no one can 
measure the amount of good that may be 
accomplished, under rightly directed care 
and treatment, for obsessing influences who 
are thus brought within reach of light for 
which they may have been long groping in 
utter darkness and despair ; a good declared 
to be more than recompense for the labor 
and sufferings of the obsessed patient and 
watching friends ! As " from seeming evil 
* 270 * 



* of flfeofcern Spiritualism * 

still deducing good," God ever makes the 
wrath of man to praise Him, so in the order- 
ings of his providence may the insane 
patients be instruments for good, at which 
ultimately they may rejoice, notwithstanding 
the suffering caused. We cannot and do 
not know all that is yet to be learned in 
such cases ; but enough has been shown to 
give a new and deeply interesting aspect to 
this most distressing form of human experi- 
ence. 

With all the liability to spirit influence 
and control shown in this article, we would 
repeat the injunction before written, calling 
upon every one to see to it that their lives 
are ordered with ever watchful purpose to 
" resist every prompting or impulse that is 
not in accord with their highest sense of 
right." Individual responsibility to this end 
is still man's first obligation to himself and 
to God, as it is his special prerogative and 
glory in the struggles and attainments of his 
daily life. 

Conditions often very difficult to under- 
stand and wisely help occur more frequently 
than generally recognized, when obsessing 
spirits have made partial approach toward 
control of their subjects, but not enough to 
►5< 271 >£ 






* £be purity anfc> Besting * 

take away all responsibility of action. The 
state which follows is very trying to friends 
who cannot but see the unbalanced mind, 
yet find it difficult, often impossible, to per- 
suade the subject to yield to any reason, or 
to realize that he is " beside himself." Per- 
sons so affected are looked upon as " very 
odd," sometimes annunciating the most un- 
reasonable propositions, and doing the most 
unreasonable things, while yet retaining 
enough of self to save them from guardian- 
ship ; though they may be most uncomfort- 
able and difficult inmates of a household. 
These conditions may continue for years 
under the suffering patience of relatives and 
friends, or they may deepen into states abso- 
lutely demanding outside control ; or hap- 
pily, by entire change of surroundings and 
interests may be, and not unfrequently are, 
entirely thrown off". Such cases are dis- 
tinctly allied to recognized mediumship and 
obsession, and can be understood from no 
other point of view. Similar conditions may 
and doubtless do obtain more or less in the 
delirium of fevers ; the manifestations in 
which have so long been waiting for explana- 
tion from current medical science. 

It is true that careful observation has 
*b 272 % 



* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

shown to those who have devoted them- 
selves to treatment of the insane, that a most 
important end to be labored for is to 
strengthen the individuals affected, so that 
they can command and use their own proper 
mental action. So far, so good. But they 
have not attained the deep yet simple un- 
derstanding which will show to the careful, 
loving attendant the absolute necessity of 
most patient speech and action toward the 
obsessing influences, and how by kindness 
and instruction to lift them gradually to a 
higher plane of thought and character, until, 
as sometimes occurs in a way not yet fully 
understood, nature opens the doors, perhaps 
suddenly after long years of obsession, for 
their departure, so that they can no longer 
hold sway; or until of their own accord they 
yield to the loving pressure of those laboring 
to restore the patient. Both the patient and 
the obsessing spirits need help ; and very 
interesting and encouraging will such man- 
agement be found by those called to such 
cases ; it being borne in mind that careful 
and repeated observation only, and this not 
always, will help to determine the identity 
of the infesting spirits, and so aid in their 
further instruction. 
* 273 * 






* ftbe purity anfc> Destiny * 

Among other efforts at ameliorating the 
condition of the insane, recent experiments 
in hypnotic treatment, an old force under a 
new name, now beginning to be recognized 
by official science as offering invaluable heal- 
ing power when rightly used, seem to indi- 
cate that it may become of special use in 
the care and cure of insane patients. We 
would urge such operators to study and 
understand spirit obsession, so that in their 
treatment the hypnotic suggestion may be 
thrown upon the obsessing spirit or spirits, 
as well as upon the patient. If that can be 
accomplished, it must help to important 
progress in this branch of medical science. 

Again, knowledge of the possibility of 
spirit obsession would help all who by tem- 
perament or otherwise are too easily brought 
to extreme expression of emotion, to beware 
of the danger in'givingway to their impulses 
of anger, or grief, or even of joy, however 
short their yielding may be in duration. 
Every instance of this want of self-posses- 
sion gives opportunity for spirit influx, which 
by too great continuance or frequency may 
become supreme, and in the end wreck the 
happiness, if not the life of the sufferer. 

That there are cases of insanity attributa- 
# 274 g 









* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

ble directly and wholly to physical injury or 
disease, the removal of which will restore the 
lost equilibrium, constituting sane health, is 
not to be questioned ; but in such cases there 
is opportunity for inroad from wandering 
spirits to complicate, and make treatment 
more difficult and slow of results. Such 
cases do not contradict our general position, 
and may, in their way, confirm it ; calling 
often, in the course of their procedure, for 
careful study and understanding of the phe- 
nomena of Modern Spiritualism 

In every direction and form of life it is 
the law that true health depends upon main- 
tenance of the equilibrium, which belongs to 
the component elements of every living form. 
Any loss of such equilibrium opens the way 
to invasion from opposing forces, which will 
attach themselves to the failing part, and if 
not driven off, may in the end ruin the 
blighted form. This is simply true through- 
out all organic life, and plainly manifested 
in every injury that reaches the vegetable or 
animal form. Parasites numberless are 
ready to ingraft themselves into every 
wound of the plant or animal. The possi- 
bility of spirit obsession is one form of such 
parasitic life affecting human beings! When 

* 275 * 




* Zhe purity artfc Besting 

one considers the myriads of spirits in hu- 
man form who have passed out of their earth 
bodies in the lowest conditions of develop- 
ment into some sort of spirit existence, and 
thus earth-bound must be slow to rise above 
the earth plane, it seems a cause for wonder 
that any human life can be protected from 
possible inroad. Only in health of body 
and mind is such protection to be found. 
It must be by virtue of the slow but higher 
development of succeeding generations, and 
stronger hold upon the principles of true life, 
though yet far from being fully attained, as 
well as by the watchful help of the higher 
influences of the spirit-spheres, who under 
the good Father's care and prompting are 
more than able to cope with these lower de- 
structive forces, that humanity has continued 
to exist upon the earth, and is gradually de- 
veloping into higher expression upon that 
plane ! Such view of the situation calls all 
the more to each and all, by true living, to 
do their part in th£ lifting of the race. 

See Appendix. 



* 276 % 



* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 



ARTICLE IX. 

Closing Illustration. — Soul Culture 

the Chief End of Spiritual Seeking. 

— The Marriage Relation in 

Conclusion. 

A judgment upon neglected opportunity given in 
illustration. — Soul culture. — The marriage re- 
lation. — Its high calling. — The divine right 
and duty of woman. — Man to be restrained 
while sharing the responsibilities of parentage. 

— True freedom in love not selfish. — The lower 
promptings to be subservient to spiritual control. 

— A crime against humanity. — False needs 
from selfish beginnings. — Magnetic interchange 
appointed. — Intemperate indulgence in food 
leads to disobedience of Law. — A spirit com- 
munication upon marriage. — Free love, what is 
it ? — Apostrophe to truth. — Unveiling of Truth 
essential, where ignorance is not bliss. — An in- 
spirational view of what "this orb is yet to be." 

— The writer's early compassion and prompt- 
ing. ■ — True Motherhood the crown of Woman- 
hood. 

The story has been told of one of our 
real estate magnates, who had passed into 

* - 277 * 



* Gbe fl>urit\> ant) Besting * 

spirit life a few years ago, while in posses- 
sion of house upon house, and in receipt of 
thousands in rentals, that upon being asked 
by a friend, through a spirit medium, " what 
he had been doing during the year which 
had elapsed since his departure," the spirit 
replied — "Doing? I have been trying to 
find bricks enough to build a house with ! " 
He had been so absorbed in his material 
interests, and had availed so little of his 
opportunities to help others out of his 
abundant wealth, that he had utterly failed 
to put together the elements of righteous 
living wherewith to build the house " not 
made with hands," which he might other- 
wise have found ready to welcome him on 
that other side ; — and there he stood before 
the questioner, houseless and homeless ! 
Such announcement must have been sadly 
instructive to the inquiring friend, as to 
every thinking mind. The incident is intro- 
duced here in part for its general illustration 
of the many and varied teachings which have 
come through Modern Spiritualism ; but 
more as a call to all who are looking into 
modern things of the spirit, to come up 
higher, and to remember that true spiritual 
unfoldment should be the chief end of all 
* 278 



* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

the inquiry ; failure in which has been stated 
to be the second prominent cause of the slow 
progress in Spiritualism during recent years. 
Too many Spiritualists are sticking in the 
beautiful gates, instead of entering into the 
inner precincts of the Temple, to learn and 
to worship, and ultimately to unfold in lov- 
ing service to humanity ! 

Soul culture — what is it, and how to be 
attained ? First and foremost it is to be 
reached through faithful performance of 
every duty in external life to which we may 
be called, without other thought than its 
proper fulfilment. While not neglectful of 
self, so far as care may be needed to keep 
each life in its best condition for usefulness, 
growth of the soul seems to come more out 
of work well done for other use and purpose 
than from direct seeking for its own develop- 
ment. It is altruistic in the fullest sense. 
The powers which may be developed through 
soul culture are matters of growth, up to the 
almost limitless expression of what lies more 
or less dormant in every human being ; and 
they are to be dedicated to the highest uses 
of which each individual may be capable. 
It was said recently by an earnest truth- 
seeker, that her spirit seemed " like a young 

* 2 79 * 





* Zbc purity anfc Destiny * 

robin with upturned head and open mouth, 
waiting for the inflowing of truth." So we 
would wish that every soul should hold itself 
ready to welcome and use for the help of 
others, as well as of itself, every thought that 
has real life in it, every truth wherewith the 
good Father is ready and waiting to satisfy 
and bless his hungering children. This is 
no new need peculiar to Spiritualists; it has 
been the cry of all leaders in spiritual things. 
But it is to be pressed with special force on 
those whose minds have been awakened to 
the latter day possibilities of development 
through more intimate relations with the 
spirit-spheres, that they may show by their 
fruits what growth and blessing are to be 
gained by deeper insight into this opening 
way of life. 

In response to the call to come up higher, 
which seems to have been in the air during 
the last quarter century, with all the greed 
and rush for money making, many minds in 
and out of the churches of to-day have 
been and are busy with plans for ameliorat- 
ing the conditions of the less favored chil- 
dren of men, and lifting them to a plane 
which shall be more worthy of the Christ 
name, now sadly a misnomer in so many 
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V 








* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

directions of our boasted progress and refine- 
ment ; and to these all we would heartily wish 
a God-speed. Our own thought turns, in 
such connection, to what we have previously 
but briefly adverted to, as the most momen- 
tous of all questions pressing to-day, and 
indeed through all time, upon the need of 
mankind ; we mean the near relations be- 
tween man and woman. Due consideration, 
or rather study of this grave question is still 
held strangely in the background, while the 
nations go rushing on in their pursuit of 
wealth and all external gratification ! With 
spillings of their mad gains they are building 
hospitals, asylums, and jails for the sick, the 
insane, and the criminal, to meet the conse- 
quences of ignorance and too wilful neglect 
of the basic prevention of all sickness and 
crime to be assured through a better under- 
standing and ordering of the marriage rela- 
tion, and the holy duties of parentage ! 

With fear and trembling we approach this 
momentous subject, so plainly to our mind it 
is the first and last great need to be rightly 
studied and understood. In the solution of 
the questions involved in it, as it seems to us, 
lie the ultimate uplifting and perfection of 
the human family. Too long have the mass 
^ 281 »£ 






wm& 



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Zbe purity anfc Besting 



* 



of mankind closed their minds against a 
righteous study and wise unfoldment of the 
deep mysteries which have been implanted 
through nature in the wonderful structure of 
the bodies of man and woman in special re- 
gard to continuation and development of the 
race. Hedged about by attractions of sense, 
which lead to healthful interchange when 
wisely exercised, but to degradation and ruin 
when indulged in only for selfish gratification, 
the marriage relation has been subjected to 
every trial possible in the wide range of human 
error. Beginning with the lowest forms of 
its expression among the earlier and often 
inferior races, and developing through the 
centuries up to the present bounds and limi- 
tations which society has slowly worked out 
for its own protection, the restraints do help 
to keep the selfish instincts in subjection to 
the law of social order. But this is com- 
paratively external in operation. Man must 
yet find his way out of the wilds in which 
his labors first opened, to the fairer fields that 
are awaiting him, when his spiritual nature 
has attained the predominant relation to his 
life, prefigured in the paradisiacal state ; — 
the paradise lost, but yet to be regained. 

The question of love, as distinguished 
%> 282 ^ 












* of flDofcem Spiritualism * 

from attraction on the lower or physical 
plane, demands a deep study for most of 
the present generation of men and women, 
whose antecedents and inheritance have been 
out of such mixed conditions as often to 
confuse the most earnest investigator as to 
the real source of the promptings ordinarily 
attributed to love. The first claim of Spirit- 
ualism in this regard has been for freedom, as 
we have before written, from the tyrannical 
control of man over woman, which has been 
handed down through many centuries, and 
sustained with slowly yielding provisions by 
statutes of man's making. If not demanded 
as a brutal right, the result has been too 
much the same through woman's fear that 
failure to meet his selfish importunity may 
turn him away from his proper home, and 
so with trembling as to possible results, she 
has yielded herself against the finer instincts 
of her nature ! What a breach of divine 
law is involved in this sacrifice on her part, 
and what a lowering of true manly attributes 
on his part. On the other hand, artificial or 
any other unnatural interference in the inter- 
course, is but a disgrace to humanity, and 
will sometime, if not always now, be recog- 
nized by every true man and woman as un- 
* 283 * 



* Zhe purity anfc Stestin^ * 




worthy of the high calling of a child of 
God. 

Every branch of the Christian church has 
taken its part in endeavoring to keep sensual 
license within bounds. Some portions of it 
have held that marriage can be rightly con- 
summated only under its ordinances ; almost 
ignoring the divine law which first moves the 
twain to be joined as one, and which if 
rightly studied and obeyed would, and in 
God's time will determine the character and 
holiness of the joining, as no priest or earthly 
potentate ever has or could. To be a law 
unto themselves, so that statute law with pen- 
alties attached, as well as solemn injunctions 
of the church, and promises at the marriage 
altar shall cease to be necessary restraints, is 
plainly the divine end to be attained ; just 
as all laws become useless when the com- 
munity over which they stand as sentinels 
and guards have risen above the possible need 
of such protection. This is easily written, 
but to be accomplished requires a devout 
study, on the part of every man and woman 
coming to maturity, to know themselves 
physically and spiritually, before entering into 
the sacred relation of marriage ; realizing 
that with or without church and state they 
* 284 »g 





of flfcofcern Spiritualism 






are children of God through whom they 
have their being, and that in his service, not 
in their own selfish seeking, the consumma- 
tion is to be reached. 

Among the various effects produced upon 
the public mind through the advent of 
modern Spiritualism, tending in all directions 
to freedom of thought and action, and so 
seeming to loosen old restraints, the license 
in which some of the early votaries of the 
new truths indulged their lower natures, has 
at times cast a shadow upon the real purpose 
and message of the angel visitors. Like 
many truths when first broached upon the 
consciousness of men, this freedom has 
proved a stumbling-block, partly because 
misunderstood, and partly because, as before 
written, the old conditions could not bear the 
nearer approach of the sun of righteousness, 
the very principle of unselfish love, and so 
quickened they have smouldered and smoked, 
and at times burst into flames that must be 
restrained and extinguished by external law. 

Many pages have been written and pub- 
lished by earnest seekers after truth in this 
direction, and none more exhaustive of the 
question of freedom in love than the contro- 
versy between two able disputants published 
* 285 k 






* Zbc purity anfc Destiny * 

a few years since. 1 But the arguments seem 
to fail of definite conclusions in not striking 
deep enough into consideration of the divine 
purposes involved in marriage ; and the 
principle of freedom is still waiting to be 
apprehended and demonstrated in the ex- 
pression of a truer, less selfish, and more 
spiritual love between man and woman than 
is now generally recognized as desirable or 
possible. The fruits of marriage to-day, 
with all the legal and moral restraints that 
hedge it about in vain, offer sad confirma- 
tion of this position. The time was when 
freedom in religion was deemed to be dan- 
gerous, and the right now enjoyed by so 
many, with perfect safety to society, to find 
their religion and their time and place of 
worship in their own way and choice, was 
denied and curtailed by church and state. 
That in some way a freedom for expression 
of love as between man and woman corre- 
sponding to that now enjoyed in religion 
among many if not all enlightened nations 
to-day, has been pressed upon the minds of 
earnest thinkers, each offering limited solu- 
tion of the problem, but all admitting that 
unrestrained expression of the impulses of 

i By Henry James and Stephen Pearl Andrews. 

$4 286 gl 



* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

the natural man must be in some way held 
in equilibrium by the inner or higher powers 
of the spirit. Deeper and more potent than 
religious instincts has been the sway of love 
between man and woman, and by so much 
more is its right control and directing the 
greatest essential to their well being individu- 
ally and socially. Freedom in both religion 
and love must be within that true service of 
God, and in accordance with his implanted 
law, " which alone is perfect freedom," in 
every direction of life ; a prime requirement 
being in the underlying principle and safe- 
guard, that none shall exercise their freedom 
in any direction injuriously to others. A 
happy illustration of such freedom is shown 
in the present use of the Christian Sabbath; 
the rigid observance of which, that once held 
sway in this community, has gradually yielded 
to a more enlightened acceptance of the 
simple words reported of the Master — "The 
Sabbath was made for man, and not man for 
the Sabbath." 

Very plainly, however, society, with a 
very few exceptions, has not yet reached the 
development which would authorize the re- 
moval of all bars and restraints in the mar- 
riage relation. On the other hand it has 

* 287 £, 



* £be purity ant) Besting * 

been argued that to continue the restraints 
is a weakening process out of which man 
would never find his highest manhood. To 
our mind the truer way is for man to outgrow 
the restraints through a deeper culture of the 
individual, so that, as before written, the 
statutes of the State and ordinances of the 
church shall simply become dead letters, 
having no application to the social order, 
and unnecessary in the mouth of magistrate 
or priest ; just as the statutes forbidding 
great crimes are no longer needed by a large 
majority of people in every civilized com- 
munity on earth to-day. With this view in 
mind, we feel a constant urgency to lay be- 
fore every intelligent man and woman, the 
last and best considerations which, after 
many years of study, have come to us from 
every source, mundane or spiritual, to help 
humanity on toward the long promised land 
which shall be reached by the few at first 
and later by the many, — the paradise re- 
gained, to which no longer the gates with 
flaming swords will deny admission. Our 
desire in all this seeking is not for novelty 
of idea, but for truth, whatever that may be, 
or however progressed. 

Perhaps the foremost thought which 
* 288 iff 



* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 

presses itself upon our attention in this re- 
gard, is the full recognition of the terrible 
truth that to give birth to unwelcome offspring 
is a crime against humanity! The full mean- 
ing of this needs to be held in the minds 
and lives of all men and women who are in 
position possible for parentage. Once taken 
into their consciousness, both would be so 
strengthened as to be able to exercise a self- 
restraint that would be a better safeguard 
than any statute prohibition. Still more 
urgent perhaps are the summons to stay that 
other great wrong, not yet recognized as it 
should and will be, the crime of infanticide 
before birth. Man knows not just when 
the spark of life begins its being as a possi- 
ble immortal soul. Shutting his eyes to 
every consideration but his own selfish seek- 
ing, he has deemed the stopping of a life 
only just begun in its lower stages, as a 
slight if any offence against the laws of God, 
by which it came into existence! The retri- 
bution for such wrong is in the judgment 
pronounced by the all-Father, in conse- 
quences too often attributed to other causes 
than the real underlying one of selfish seek- 
ing. These are plain words, but the times 
demand them. Too long has the finger 
^ 289 g< 






* £be purity ant) Destiny * 

been laid upon the lips for hush of inquiry 
into this most momentous question. False 
shame of women and underlying selfishness 
of men have conspired to allow the continu- 
ance of old conditions, and the highest and 
holiest of all social rights been held in cruel 
bondage. The growing conviction among 
all who stop to think, that God and nature 
demand the absolute control of her person 
by woman in the marriage relation must be 
established more and more among civilized 
communities, declared and sustained if need 
be by statute, until man becomes so subject 
to the spiritual ruling of his lower instincts 
and passions, that such statute provision 
would become unnecessary. The new gen- 
erations that would come under such order- 
ing would " rise up and call their parentage 
blessed " indeed, as is now far from being 
always possible. Children ceasing to be, as 
they now too often are, creatures of accident 
and worse, rather than the beautiful fruitage 
of love under God's law and woman's abso- 
lute freedom of person, to which she has a 
divine right, would no longer have to con- 
tend in their growing years with false long- 
ings and seeming needs out of inevitable 
inheritance from the conditions of their con- 
>jt 290 




^W^^^^^M^W^^^I^ill^^^M^W 



* of flfcofcern Spiritualism * 

ception and birth. Inclinations which now 
tend to irritate and preoccupy the minds of 
youth, leading and sometimes almost forcing 
to indulgence, would no longer divert their 
lives from pursuit of higher and worthier 
sources of pleasure and growth! It was the 
remark in print of a keen observer, that 
" man and woman naturally desire each 
other, but with this difference ; man desires 
first, and then loves ; whereas woman," as a 
rule to which there are sad exceptions from 
the conditions of birth, " loves first, and 
then desires." It was a beautiful, and as we 
believe a just tribute to the average woman; 
but a lamentable recognition of the condi- 
tions of the average man, resulting directly 
from the ruling motive at the time of con- 
ception and gestation. Through selfishness 
in parentage the lower propensities are natur- 
ally predominant in the offspring, and will 
continue to be until a purer love moves 
both parents with desire only to bless one 
another. The world of humanity is crying 
out to-day for better conditions of birthright 
for every child of man. Would that the 
cry could reach the ears of every newly 
joined pair, and lead to such recognition of 
the awful responsibility in parentage, as 






'MWm, 








* 






£be purity anfc Destiny 




* 



would protect their possible issue from the 
blight which otherwise awaits them in vary- 
ing degree, retarding the spirit thus started 
upon one round of the life immortal. It 
needs no argument to show that nature for- 
bids indiscriminate mingling of the sexes for 
selfish purpose. This has been made terri- 
bly plain by the consequences sooner or 
later engendered in such low seeking. Like 
other sins of man committed in breach of 
divine law, the punishment is extended to 
the third and fourth generation from the first 
evil doer. Communications written through 
unconscious hands have in years past, and 
still do respond to earnest inquiries in these 
inner matters, always confirming the progres- 
sive thought toward purer lives and a re- 
deemed humanity. 

We have before written that true freedom 
in love " asserts the right, the bounden duty 
rather, of woman, to whom the duty first 
belongs, to protect the fountains of life from 
every approach that is not actuated by love; 
and to hold the marriage relation sacred to 
the cause of parentage, for which it was 
divinely instituted." This solemn injunc- 
tion, however, does not mean that parentage 
is the only purpose and use in marriage ; the 
>$< 292 £1 






* of flDofcern Spiritualism * 



interchange of magnetism being always a 
source of health between man and woman, 
whether holding the marriage relation or 
not ; and to those holding that relation a 
continuing source of blessing to both when 
not stagnated by wasteful use of opportunity. 
The eyes, the hands, the lips, the presence 
only offer channels of communication and 
interchange, and experience has shown to 
many a happily united pair that these methods 
will never lose their charm, or cease to bring 
joy to both so long as the laws of God are 
obeyed, and selfishness is excluded from all 
their joining. More and more as these laws 
are obeyed will the marriage vows hold their 
efficacy to keep the home what it is at the 
start in its great purpose, though it be recog- 
nized that in the present conditions of earth 
life the matings are not always the complete 
union of two souls, which is to be ultimately 
reached in the joining of the pair ordained 
of God, the two in one, constituting the 
complete angel. To this end the promises 
at the marriage altar are to be kept sacred, 
with willingness on each part to forget self 
and keep the home true to those promises ; 
bearing in mind that whatever the ways of 
man in working up to his highest develop- 

* 2 93 * 







* £be purity anfc Destiny * 

ment, true marriage is purely and of neces- 
sity monogamic, and to be lived up to in 
that conviction. Should this seem some- 
times to involve sacrifice on either part, the 
blessing that will come of it will surely be 
realized ultimately by one if not both. 
When men and women have come to a right 
understanding of and firm purpose to be 
true to divine law, intended to protect every 
new-born spirit from contamination, doubt- 
less the interchange of magnetisms may be 
sought under the marriage relation, if mutu- 
ally desired, through the closest joining 
without purpose or thought of parentage. 
Woman's absolute control of the situation, 
and man's obedience to the law of unselfish- 
ness are the essential conditions by which 
such communing may be allowed, and bring 
its quiet blessing to both. But, as before 
written, such happy consummation can 
hardly be reached without obedience to the 
laws of health in all the appetites of the 
physical. Beyond the real needs of health 
and strength, indulging his appetite with 
meat and drink ; living to eat rather than 
eating to live, without thought of natural 
consequences ; man has yielded to the stim- 
ulants thus inflaming his lower propensities, 
* 294 $ 





* 



of fIDofcern Spiritualism 



* 





and in the burning of lust, rather than under 
the prompting of love, he has gone on from 
generation to generation, handing down the 
seeds of weakness and ill health, too seldom 
recognized as the fruits of his ignorance and 
selfishness. That woman has in a measure 
shared this lowering of her better nature is 
not to be denied ; but coming last from the 
hand of God, as the old Scriptures state it, 
and recognized by man, in her finer instincts 
as by nature nearer to the divine source of 
all life, and so more quick to perceive the 
truth and better able to lead in these mo- 
mentous questions of the sex relations and 
parentage, surely she is to be allowed free- 
dom from man's control, exercised through 
the long centuries ; and, thus free, to declare 
the inner law of her spirit written before 
man-made statutes were dreamed of. 

Years ago it was written through a half 
unconscious hand, in response to our seek- 
ing and inquiry upon this solemn topic, 
"Your question hath mighty revelations of 
Light, for it leads into the very beat of the 
central heart of being, and brings us into 
those beautiful rays from Light, which are 
Love, Justice, Charity, Hope and all prin- 
ciples that enter the cells of things and try 

* 2 95 * 




'fm-Gf. 








* Zhe purity anb Destiny * 

to shine through them. God said, " Let 
there be Light." Through light and its 
uplighting comes immortality. Unless a 
man have light in every cell, he is not in 
fulness. A dead liver or a dead lung, is 
where there is no God. God needs every 
cell to uplift itself and light the taper of the 
soul." ... " The Earth is in a low mag- 
netic state. It has not risen above the ther- 
mal heat and reds in some of its people ; 
while in others there are flames of pure 
grade of magnetic power in yellow and blue. 
Every mortal or spirit needs the exchange 
of the magnetic fires ; for as I told you, all 
fires are needed for immortality, and it is 
our desire to help mortals to receive these 
fires in as high and lofty a grade as possible." 
Again it was written, " Do you wonder 
that we are trying by all means of principles 
instilled into the Earth people to raise the 
quality of this rayed light from one to an- 
other ? The soul needs it for its roundness 
and future immortality. Celibacy is not in 
the Divine Law. All things are dual, and 
in graded magnetism and electricity, and 
God is both Father and Mother ; yet these 
fires of exchange must be raised into exceed- 
ing finer states than now within the race, or 
>& 296 »j< 






* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 

immortality will require many incarnations. 
The man never will be immortal without the 
woman, and vice versa : the one completes 
the other, and in this completeness the secret 
of being in God's image lies. No matter at 
what point comes the exchange of fine 
threaded light if the quality is pure and 
white, with delicate pink of affection and 
tenderness, there will be growth toward im- 
mortality. O let us lift them all into these 
delicate colors, that there shall be no more 
lust, no more improper longing — no misuse 
of God's fire ! Let us so lift the race that 
in the closest exchanges there may be the 
white fire only without its material shield : 
for the highest angels do exchange by the 
white fire, and not by the low thermal state 
of heat. I say all beings need the blending 
of one soul in another. It is the mother 
mingling with the father — or the sphering 
of the two in one, representing God and the 
Son and the fire or the Holy Ghost ; these 
being the holy Trinity in which all is. No 
man can be celibate and become in fulness, 
for he would lack the mother flame or the 
illumined God. We bid you preach these 
truths ! " 

Various forms of the free love doctrine 

* 297 £, 






* £be Ipurit^ ant) Besting * 





have seemed to come in with the other 
claims for freedom of thought and action, 
under the promptings of the mediums of 
Modern Spiritualism. But surely this does 
not mean wild license ; the freedom which 
soon kills itself by wanton indulgence and 
perhaps most selfish encroachment upon the 
rights of others. It means rather liberation 
from the bonds which have heretofore, in 
man's slow development, seemed necessary 
to protect the marriage relation and the 
sacredness of the home circles, and are yet 
far from useless with too many who could 
not bear any loosening of the bonds without 
danger of results that would be ruinous to 
the best social order. This liberation can 
safely come only through growth of the indi- 
vidual toward that highest aim of the deep- 
est thinkers, when each, by development of 
soul culture and the God that is within all, 
can become a law unto themselves. The 
freedom then will be not in liberation from 
the external restraint, but in the subjection 
of the lower nature to the spiritual life of 
every man and woman ; not crushing the 
lower nature, but so sustained in the higher 
and spiritual, that the lower will come into 
action only when and as prompted by the 






* of fIDofcern Spiritualism * 













higher. Then it will be true for both man 
and woman, and not for woman only, as 
before quoted, to " love first and then de- 
sire"; — never the reverse. Is it expecting 
too much of man and woman as they now 
average, to reach this standpoint ? We can 
only say that it never will be reached unless 
" the mark of the prize of the high calling " 
be held up before them, till gradually all 
may be drawn to its wonderful and beautiful 
possibilities by an attraction that will as it 
were compel obedience to the divine law 
implanted in every human being to be 
worked out into joyful fruition. 

It was a beautiful inspiration that wrote, — 

" O Truth, I love thee ; it were sweet to pass 
Into thy essence, as a globe of glass, 
Melted and shivered by intensest light 
To flow and mingle with thy Infinite. 
O Truth, O Monarch, O thou conquering God, 
Would that I were a meadow violet trod 
Beneath thy feet, to feel thy Godhood thrill 
This dust, this me, then lie forever still ! 
Nay, nay thy touch should make me turn to fire ; 
I'd rise transformed from Nature's funeral pyre, 
Echoing thy thought. — Alas, alas, how weak, 
How utter weak: — the hot blood burns my cheek: 
My aspirations are for thee ; my life, 
Like a fallen tear drop in cold seas of strife 














* Gbe purity anfc Besting * 

Sinks down — the exhaling tear ascends above 
The eyes that wept it forth ; — I feel Thy love, 
O loving Spirit, and this tear, this me, 
A star of soul becomes informed by Thee." 



Let no one argue that plain treatment and 
unveiling of the momentous interests in- 
volved in the marriage relation might disturb 
the peace, or possibly give false direction to 
the thoughts of young men or women, whose 
minds have been entirely free from the " lep- 
rosy of sensual thought or desire." To such 
minds ignorance is not bliss when they are 
brought, as in the course of nature they may 
and should be, into position where want of 
knowledge is a snare into which many an 
innocent young woman, and some young 
men have been led under cover of the mar- 
riage ri,tes as usually construed, despite their 
own native consciousness that all is not con- 
ducted as it should be. Light, more light 
is demanded for each and all who are likely 
sooner or later to be brought into possible 
relations of parentage ; for the man, that he 
shall not ignorantly and selfishly intrude 
himself upon the woman ; and for the woman 
that she may guard sacredly the high and 
holy calling of maternity, through intelligent 

* 3°° * 









* of flDobern Spiritualism * 

co-operation with the laws implanted by the 
All-Father in her organism for the preser- 
vation and improvement of the race. 

To those whose lives are already infected 
with more or less seeming need and desire, 
arising sadlv out of the conditions of their 
birth under selfish promptings, rather than 
the love which God meant should be the 
actuating motive, such inquiry into the laws 
of true marriage-life will prove helpful and 
sustaining in the struggles with self, and in 
the end lift them to a higher plane, quite 
above such seeming need. It would lead 
them to recognize that the lower promptings 
have their use when all the higher conditions 
are satisfied, so that passion given expression 
under the moving sanction of love, shall 
bring all the forces of the natural man into 
co-operation with the spiritual man; and thus 
every new born spirit, while yet in embryo, 
can rightly take on its leading conditions, to 
be unfolded through experience on the earth 
plane. Gradually, it is to be hoped, man 
will rise to this higher calling, partly through 
better culture and ruling of the daily life, 
but more through better parentage in which 
all the rest is practically involved. Let 
these injunctions be accepted and lived up 

* 3 01 * 



* 



£be purity anfc Destiny 



* 





to as fast and as far as increasing knowledge 
and higher aspirations for the truth of God 
make possible, and in good time will the 
earth blossom and rejoice with a regenerated 
humanity, such as now can only be antici- 
pated with a divine hope. Then and not 
till then will woman's servitude be looked 
back upon as a terrible dream of a long and 
weary past ; and men and women meeting 
together shall be as children of God, always 
strong in true manhood and womanhood, 
through their mutual obedience to his law. 
Then may be realized the beautiful promise 
of the poet from whose inspiration we have 
already quoted, — 

" There is a world whose multitudinous race 
One God inspires ; through every human face 
Beams forth the mild Divinity of Love ; 
Their forms are beautiful and pure above 
All mortal knowledge. There my soul was led 
In solemn vision, and an Angel said, 
' Explore these bright dominions, treasure well 
In spirit-consciousness the miracle, 
The wonder and the glory thou shalt see ; 
As that orb is, thy orb is yet to be." 

God speed the time and its fulfilment. 
He will, but through man's development 
and beautiful obedience to the laws of true 
* 




* of flfeofcern Spiritualism * 

life. It can be reached in no other way. 
To repeat, we claim that beyond contro- 
versy : I. Woman must never yield her 
person to man out of selfish purpose, but 
always with desire rather to bless. II. She 
must be free to decide when and under what 
conditions she may seek to become a mother. 
On this point man must be absolutely sub- 
missive. III. Man must be lifted out of 
selfish purpose in all his approaches, and 
rejoice in perfect freedom from subjection to 
his own lower nature. Such is the freedom 
which the higher angels would help man and 
woman to achieve. It is the corner-stone in 
the foundation of that kingdom which is to 
come on earth as in heaven. From genera- 
tion to generation, down the long line of an- 
cestry, the blessing in fulfilment of these 
requirements may be transmitted. The 
planet waits for something better in the new 
order now opening for all the forces of na- 
ture. It will be a revelation, indeed, when 
this development under a true Christian civi- 
lization is reached ; and those solemn words 
of the Master, uttered nearly two thousand 
years ago, " he that looketh upon a woman 
with desire that is not born of love, commit- 
teth the forbidden sin," shall be an effective 

* 303 




: iW^M 




* ftbe purity ant) E>e6tin\> * 




substitute for the statute law now vainly en- 
deavoring through threat of punishment to 
suppress the secret wrongs hidden from the 
public eye, and too often sadly committed 
under cover of the marriage certificate. 

For many years these thoughts have been 
pressing upon our mind. In early youth 
a deep compassion for women who had fallen 
into servitude to man's selfishness moved 
the writer with earnest desire, now partially 
fulfilled in these writings, to do what he could 
to meet and help overcome the terrible social 
evil. Similar thoughts have found expres- 
sion through divers other sources among 
truth seeking men and women. But not till 
now has the fulness of time seemed to call 
for such free expression, or been ready to 
welcome an open consideration of this mo- 
mentous topic of the sex relations. With 
earnest prayer that the work of redemption 
may soon be taken up and carried to its ul- 
timate, long hoped for results, we leave it in 
His hands for whom we would ever labor in 
loving service ! 

Plain words have been written ! May 
they quicken the perceptions of men to rec- 
ognize, and strengthen the native instinct 
and promptings of woman to insist upon her 

* 3°4 











* of flfcofcern Spiritualism * 






divine right and bounden duty to be a free 
agent in the exercise of her calling under 
God to give birth only to offspring worthy 
to be accepted as his children ! Would not 
the parentage of the Christ man fail of its 
great teaching, if it did not illustrate the 
possibilities of true Motherhood, as an ul- 
timate attainment of all true Womanhood ? 
Has not the time come for such recognition 
here and now, whenever and wherever a hu- 
man eye rests upon these pages ? 

:fcs*3 B 



30s * 



* 



* 






Father, may our life in Thee 

Be hid through all Eternity 1 

By Love inspired, by Wisdom taught. 

Be all our action, all our thought 

Forever to Thy service brought, 

In true humility I 



APPENDIX 



The following statement, gathered from most re- 
liable sources, will be of interest to the general 
reader. 

The First Spiritual Temple, so-called because the 
first of its kind in modern times, was completed in 
1885.. It is a beautiful stone structure, covering an 
area of eighty-four by one hundred and ten feet ; 
the main auditorium having a seating capacity for 
fifteen hundred persons. It was erected at a cost of 
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and rivals 
in architectural effect, after its kind, some of the 
most costly of the many places of worship in the 
city of Boston, Very nearly the whole cost was met 
out of an accumulation from successful business, by 
one man, whose deep interest carried the work to 
completion, and who has since held the chief place 
in its direction, and in large measure borne its cur- 
rent expenses. By a deed of Trust it was placed, 
and still stands in the name of three Trustees, of 
whom the builder is the chief, with ample power to 
maintain the uses declared. It was dedicated on 
the evenings of September 26th, 27 th and 28th, 1885, 
under the auspices of the Spiritual Fraternity, the 
name given to the Society attending its ministra- 
tions. 

In the deed of Trust it is declared that "this Tem- 

* . 3°7 # 



* appendix 



* 



pie is to be used for the promulgation of principles 
which shall inculcate the highest moral good for hu- 
manity. All isms which shall tend to warp or dis- 
tort the spirit, or which shall place the intelligence 
of the people under any bonds, shall be excluded 
from its teachings. A temperate attitude toward all 
the great questions of the day and all civic questions 
under the law pertaining to the general moral good, 
shall be strictly maintained." ... " All dogmas, 
creeds or rituals interfering with progressive thought 
shall be excluded. It shall be devoted to the pro- 
mulgation of spiritual truths through the highest in- 
telligences, whether embodied or disembodied. It 
is devoted to enlighten conscience, to give liberty of 
thought, without license of speech." 

At the consecration service held in the Temple on 
the evening of September 26th, in the presence of 
fifty-seven persons, a spirit, later known as The Tem- 
ple Spirit, materialized through the help of a well- 
known medium in a curtained apartment or cabinet, 
placed for the purpose, upon the platform of the 
main auditorium. Appearing outside at first like a 
column of phosphorescent light by the altar, at 
length the outlines of a human form, arrayed in a 
peculiar luminous robe, with a tall head-dress or 
mitre as luminous, were dimly visible. 

After repeatedly advancing and retreating toward 
the cabinet, as if to gain strength, the Spirit de- 
scended to the floor of the auditorium. As he came 
near, his extended robe was seen to be composed of 
the finest lace, possessing a singular luminosity, 
while an under garment resembling velvet, of a rich 
purple color, on which were figures of apparently 
symbolic character, was visible. After reaching the 

* 3° 8 * 



* Hppenfcir * 

floor and passing up the nearest aisle and down 
another, a distance of over two hundred feet, he partly 
reascended the platform steps, whence he addressed, 
in low whispers, several persons called from the au- 
dience for the purpose. Then gaining strength 
through the aid of a powerful voice-medium, he ad- 
dressed the whole assembly in tones loud enough to 
be heard throughout the auditorium ; closing with 
these words — 

" I consecrate this Temple to holy living, — to uni- 
versal brotherhood, — to the cultivation of that spirit 
which the Divine Master brought with him in his 
life and teachings on earth, — to unity of the spirit- 
ual life with that on earth, that there may be but one 
life, one brotherhood, one God and Father of us all, 
— that from this place may be taught that wisdom 
which shall recognize more than teachings from the 
intellect, even the development and wisdom of heart- 
life ; that here the hearts of people may be awak- 
ened to do, as well as their heads to think, for only 
through the wisdom that comes from both heart and 
head can God be brought near to help us in all our 
endeavors. And may all who come to listen have 
receptive hearts to be taught how to live the divine 
life — Amen." 

On the following evening a public dedication took 
place before a crowded audience ; and on the even- 
ing of September 28th, a Dedicatory Festival was 
held. 

Besides the large auditorium, the Temple con- 
tains a smaller Audience room and a Library room 
below, with minor offices ; and in the upper story 
has seven small Audience rooms, capable of hold- 
ing from one to four hundred persons. 

* 309 




* HppenMx * 

As intimated in the preceding pages of this book, 
adverse influences seem to have retarded the work 
anticipated at the dedication of the Temple ; but 
nothing has yet occurred to render impossible the ul- 
timate fulfilment of all its early hopes and promises. 



Some interesting Articles by Pres. A. D. White, 
Cornell, were published a few years since, giving a 
brief outline of the treatment of insane people from 
the early days, when they were often held in chains 
and otherwise cruelly treated, to the modern gentle 
methods, and as far as possible freedom from re- 
straint, now generally recognized as the wiser as 
well as kinder treatment. The Articles referred to 
would have been more intelligently written and more 
helpful, if their writer had been more familiar with 
the facts of Modern Spiritualism, and especially with 
the subject of spirit " Obsession," briefly treated in 
this book. 



THE END. 



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Light 

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Assisted by a Staff of able Contributors, 

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course between spirits embodied and spirits disembodied. 
This position is firmly and consistently maintained. Beyond 
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To the educated thinker who concerns himself with ques- 
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to as such. The editor has the co-operation of the best 
writers in this country and abroad, whose opinions are 
worthy of permanent record, whose experience and know- 
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The Rev. H. R. Haweis, in a sermon on ' The Tendencies 
of Modern Spiritualism,' described "Light" as 'one of 
the most cultured, high-toned, and sensible of all the 
publications ' devoted to the subject. 



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